


WAR

by flyingllamas



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom, SCP Foundation, Slender Man Mythos
Genre: F/M, Gen, Like really minor, Mythology References, jeff being a dick, jeff the killer/oc, minor masky/oc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:10:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 58,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingllamas/pseuds/flyingllamas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world of humanity's last predators is about to go to war. Zalgo has offered many of those in that world a choice: join him, or die. Many run to Slenderman, who is gathering his own army against Zalgo. Humanity's only representative in this war, Rose, has already picked her side with Slenderman, knowing that Zalgo would only destroy the Earth instead of continuing to hunt her kind, but will her research be enough to persuade three of history's most influential nightmares to their side to avoid the apocalypse?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Up.

Smack.

Down.

Catch.

Jeff was bored, which never boded well for the world in general. Muscles pulled at the edge of his old lips as he smirked bitterly.

Luckily for the world at large, it could relax for once. Jeff the Killer was officially on a tight leash for the time being.

He lay on a perfectly white bed, in a room with clean white walls. It was clean other than around his ratty blue backpack, where some of his belongings were scattered. Even his hoodie was bleach white, new and relatively unscathed, barren of the usual suspicious stains and tears from his line of work. Jeff felt smothered by the cleanness.

He tossed the tennis ball up again, continuing his earlier rhythm. It wasn't much to alleviate his boredom, but it muffled the voice somewhere inside him that encouraged activities which, as the boss man put it, “would leave him at the mercy of Zalgo and whatever of his current followers that survived him.”

Zalgo was the entire reason for his boredom in the first place, though Jeff would gladly take the boredom in the small, stifling room over Zalgo's alternative.

Zalgo had recently gotten a move on with his whole 'chaos campaign' against existence in general, and decided he needed some help with spreading his apocalypse. He had made a 'lucrative' offer to Jeff: join, or die. Now Jeff was all for certain amounts of chaos, and especially rooting for having his own niche of existence, which Zalgo had promised he would have at the end of his chaos mongering, but frankly Zalgo scared the living bejeesus out of him like nothing else and his plan sounded more insane than its planner, as well as the fact that Jeff was _fairly_ certain that Zalgo would go back on his word.

So as soon as Zalgo (or rather his representative or proxy or whatever, he didn't care) left, Jeff packed his little backpack and booked it in the opposite direction, which happened to be in the direction he was sure Zalgo's nemesis was in.

Slenderman.

No one really knew the history between the two, other than both had been around longer than anyone could remember (and there were some really old beings out there, as Jeff had found). Their personalities were foils to each other. Where Zalgo raged, Slenderman was calm. Where Zalgo charged ahead and wreaked chaos, Slenderman stayed back and planned for the future. It had seemed natural to seek the tall being out.

The ball smacked roughly against the ceiling and fell into Jeff's waiting hand, but this time, muffled yelling followed after the small yellow ball on its way down. Apparently, his attempts to alleviate his boredom had irritated his upstairs neighbor. Jeff smirked and lobbed the ball harder at the ceiling. Sucks to be that guy, he thought, seeing as I'm all for some entertainment. The prospect of annoying someone else made his boredom cease a little.

But only a little.

He probably wasn't alone in his boredom on this huge estate, as the proxy in the mask had called it. Slenderman's restrictions made sense but those in the estate rattled their self imposed cages loudly. Jeff thought he could speak for everyone when he said that he'd rather deal with the boredom and insanity that came with not killing (or maiming, as some preferred) anyone than have Zalgo's attention on the estate. Most, if not all of the residents, were hiding here from Zalgo's war until Slenderman came up with some sort of plan or retaliation.

Jeff really, really hoped he would come up with some sort of plan.

Jeff had been the first to arrive at the estate. He hadn't known about its existence until after he found Slenderman. He and his proxies weren't the easiest to find, as they preferred to keep a low profile (other than leaving pages in woods, which Jeff never really understood) and rarely drew attention to themselves in the way Jeff had with his gruesome and stylistic murders.

Jeff had been on the run from Zalgo and his nightmare fuel minions for over two and a half weeks before he had found the freaky rat with the yellow hoodie and odd face covering on the outskirts of a forest near a Montana town. The poor sap hadn't seen him coming from the woods behind him as he stared on at the town in the distance.

Jeff had almost killed him right then and there. He had been run ragged like a fox from a pack of dogs, with little sleep, no food and the voice in his head screaming at him to “kill, kill everything and make as beautiful as we are” before dissolving into crazed laughter every second with no way to relieve it without leaving a trail.

A scream had gurgled in the proxy's throat for a half second before Jeff hand wrapped around his throat and slammed him back against a cottonwood tree with bare branches.

“Where is he?” Jeff snarled, shaking the proxy by his throat. The proxy choked and pulled at Jeff's fingers around his throat, but didn't answer.

Jeff desperately clung to last of his sanity as the voice screamed impossibly louder and he began to see red. He couldn't kill his proxy, he argued with the voice. He needed Slenderman's help, Zalgo was going to kill him, oh god oh god oh god.

He didn't want to die.

“Where is he?!” screamed Jeff in the proxy's face. The proxy didn't answer and his hands fell from Jeff's own at his throat.

Jeff didn't hear the footsteps approach from behind him, nor did he feel the touch of a pale slender hand on his shoulder.

Jeff did, however, hear the quiet static in his head that quickly overwhelmed the frantic screaming and felt relief for the first time in weeks. Both he and the proxy dropped to the ground, Jeff from his legs becoming week and the proxy from Jeff's hand dropping from his throat. Jeff watched numbly as the masked proxy rushed to the other's side, first checking his pulse and then shaking his shoulders.

Jeff felt like crying from the peace in his mind, a quiet in his mind and self he hadn't felt since before his fight with Randy.

“It isn't like you to let your urges get this bad, Jeffrey,” said a voice quietly through the static in his head. Jeff didn't have to look behind him to know Slenderman was there. The hand on his shoulder remained and for once Jeff didn't mind the physical contact. So long as it continued to mute the screams, of course.

“I know,” Jeff said and chuckled bitterly, “but Zalgo hasn't exactly given me time to take of things.”

The masked proxy looked up from his partner and over Jeff's shoulder, apparently listening in on this telepathic converrsation, and Jeff could almost feel his tangible fear. Apparently these guys didn't like Zalgo anymore than their boss did.

“Zalgo?” the voice questioned. “Since when have you consorted with the likes of Zalgo? You usually prefer to be alone, Jeffrey.”

“Since he's decided to kill me, I guess,” Jeff replied. “He's decided to push some nut job plan forward and wanted a little extra help. Silly me decided not to.”

“A plan, you say?” the voice said. The hooded proxy coughed violently as his friend pulled his arm over his shoulder and stood up. “This is most concerning. I assume you seek refuge of some sort from me.”

“I'd like not to get get killed, yeah. That would be nice.”

Jeff shakily stood up and brushed off his jeans. He let the hand remain. One did not simply brush off Slenderman's hand, even if did make him feel creeped out as all hell. Everything about an interaction with Slenderman was on his own terms, much as it was with Zalgo.

From there, Slenderman and his proxies, along with Jeff, retreated back into the wilds of the forest behind them, slenderwalking short distances with Slenderman's hand dragging Jeff along. Over forty miles back into the wilderness, a massive, three story house stood disguised among the pines. Jeff had found that Slenderman and his proxies had known nothing of Zalgo's recruitment attempts, but had been prepared for something similar nonetheless. Jeff had wondered then how far Slenderman had actually planned ahead into the future with his deadly rivalry.

While Jeff had been the first tenant at the estate, he was certainly not the last. More like him arrived everyday, scared out of their hunting grounds by a much larger predator. There was currently talk of needing either another building or more levels underground, with only the basement being used. No one knew for sure if there were more levels.

Jeff continued to lob the tennis ball at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. With each impact of the tennis ball, the grumbles from the room above grew louder. Finally, Jeff was startled out of his thoughts by audible death threats, stomping, and a door slamming.

The ball landed in his palm and he stared at the ceiling for a moment before swinging his socked feet over the edge of the bed and standing up. Just because of the residents of the estate weren't allowed to draw attention to themselves didn't mean there weren't plenty of brawls inside (or just outside) of the estate itself. Frustrations were high and Jeff decided that no matter how bored he was right then, he didn't want to be bodily maimed today.

He slipped out of his room into a hallway that still smelled of the pine it was made from and decided perhaps there were more interesting things (or safer people to bug) in the mess hall.


	2. Chapter 2

 Jeff quickly padded down the hallway away from his room, hoping to turn the corner before whatever or whoever he angered showed up to pound him into a smear on the stained wood floor of the hallway. Not that he couldn't defend himself, of course, as he always had at least one knife on him at all times. No, he just really didn't want to get in a fight today, strangely enough.

As he turned the corner and continued towards the second set of stairs on his floor (hopefully not the set his would-be aggressor chose to use), he supposed it was because any violence seemed to aggravate the driving, screaming voice in his head. It definitely seemed to be in a lull at the estate and Jeff was enjoying a rare moment of clarity. Here, more than anywhere else, he felt more like his old self, before the fight with Randy, before he had killed Liu.

He let his fingers trail across the wall and doors of the section of hallway he walked down, his socked feet barely making any noise. When Slenderman and his proxies first opened the doors to the estate, it was just him and occasionally, them. Some part of him was always creeped out by the empty estate at first, with halls filled with endless doors that reminded him of the hotel from the Shining. He had always expected to turn a corner and see a set of twins staring back at him. Some part of him would have laughed hysterically had he seen them, because for all he knew, they could be part of their little ragtag group too. There were no rules except to expect the unexpected.

It'd been the only movie to genuinely freak him out since his life turned upside down. The descent to insanity in the movie hit way too close to home with his own past. The city he resided in at the time had lost more than forty citizens and had a few more fires than normal the week he watched it. Oddly, his head was quiet for the week after, probably sated by the absolute bloodbath that had taken place.

Jeff climbed down the stairs, jumping off the last few in a childish moment outside of his insanity. The house was no longer empty, but he rarely saw anyone in the halls as it was. Most of the residents were reclusive, and their flight to safety hadn't changed that. The main floor he currently wandered through saw the most activity in the estate, as it contained the mess hall, living area, and library. The entrance to the basement was also heavily used as there were dummies and the like for those who needed to beat the shit out of something. It was a weak attempt at keeping the peace and the restrictions in place, but it had worked so far for the most part.

Jeff quickly scooted into the mess hall, ignoring and avoiding the living area.

“Was wondering when you'd show your face today,” someone drawled. In his peripheral vision, Jeff saw BEN sitting on the counter, eating an apple and looking out the window opposite of him.

He was older than the model in his haunted cartridge, which was more of a borrowed look than a reflection of his appearance at the time of his death. While he was never quite able to change his physical appearance away from that of Link's, he had been successful in at least losing the dumb green outfit when he was in a physical form.

“Maybe I just didn't want to see yours,” Jeff snarked back at BEN, who smirked and continued to stare out the window. 'What are you doing outside the web?”

The ghost shrugged and took another bite out of the red apple he held in his right hand. It had never made sense to Jeff that BEN ate, especially as he was fairly certain that something that was equal parts ghost and data didn't require physical sustenance.

“Net's boring, other than scaring the shit out of stupid teenagers,” he said. “None of the other data is interested in me, and if they are, they've been corrupted by Zalgo, which is another reason to stay off. I don't want to glitch out, especially after Silver's close call.”

Silver had retreated to his cartridge after nearly being cornered by a few nasty chain emails that had gone horribly wrong under Zalgo's influence. BEN spent the past week trying to convince him to come out, but to no avail.

Jeff hopped up on the counter beside BEN. The mess hall was one of the modern he had seen and had triple of almost everything to accommodate the number of residents are their differing diets. The appliances were stainless steel while the counters were crafted from black marble. Cool black slate tiled the floor and usually held a chill from the cool mornings. Not for the first time, Jeff wondered idly where Slenderman had gotten the cash to build and outfit the estate.

“I wonder how long we're going to be stuck here until Slenderman gets his shit together,” he said, studying a fridge he was fairly certain contained organs and limbs. His stomach turned, and he looked away from the fridge to grab an apple from the bowl that sat between him and BEN.

“Not too much longer.”

“How do you know?” Jeff took a bite from his apple and leaned towards BEN, trying to see what he was staring at out the window. As far as he could see, there was nothing. BEN laughed at him and tried to smash his head down onto the counter, but Jeff quickly moved out of the way.

Asshole.

“Slender stopped by briefly this morning, said he'd be back this evening. Said he's got big news.”

“He always says he's got big news,” Jeff grumbled. “What's big about that?”

BEN finished his apple, aimed, and threw the core in to the bin across the room.

“But this time, it's a rule change AND someone new,” BEN said. “You know rule changes are always a big deal. I wonder who the newbie is...”

This was true. Trying to regulate a group that at any one time contained serial killers, psychopaths, kidnappers and other odds and ends could never be easy. Any potential changes were always met with hostility from an already frustrated group.

Jeff opened his mouth to respond but before he could, the door to the mess hall opened. He and BEN both looked over to see who the new comer was. He saw black lips and long black hair before the person shot back out the door, slamming it behind them.

Jane.

Jane was here, and no one bothered to fucking tell him?

Jeff jumped off the counter, intending to chase after her. He had no idea what he would do if he actually caught Jane, but any intent he had of going out the door after her stopped when BEN caught his arm. The voice in Jeff's head grew louder from the quiet mumble it had been all week.

“BEN, you had better let me go,” he spat.

“No,” BEN said, fixing his red eyes on Jeff's unblinking ones. “You need to calm your shit, dude. If you two destroy the estate, Slender's going to have kittens, and they're not going to be cute ones either.”

“Why did no one tell me?” Jeff demanded, trying to yank his arm out of BEN's grip.

“Partly because we knew you would act like this,” BEN admitted, tightening his grip on Jeff's arm. “Partly because she asked us not to tell you. She only got here a few days ago, man, and she was in really, really bad shape. Slender found her right before Zalgo's goons finished her off.”

Jeff felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. He knew Jane was stronger than that. He had created her disaster when the voice reigned dominant in his mind.

Sensing Jeff's disbelief, BEN continued.

“I know it's hard to believe,” BEN said, “but they had her on the run for weeks. She had no chance at all to recover and they took advantage of that. She almost died, Jeff.”

Jeff fell back against the counter, and BEN let his arm go. Jeff slid down to the ground and cradled his head in his hands.

“Why didn't that idiot come here?” he said. “Surely she knew about it. Why did she run so long? She's smarter than that.”

“Why do you think, you dipshit?” BEN asked, nudging Jeff's head with his foot, only to be swatted at. “You're her personal nightmare, Jeff. She doesn't want to deal with you unless it's necessary. For her, going here was like going to hell. She wasn't happy when she woke up and realized where she was.”

BEN hopped down off the counter to sit beside Jeff on the floor.

“She doesn't know what we both know, Jeff,” he said. “And even if she did, I don't think she'd just believe that the voice came out of nowhere one day. You've read her account on that stupid site, I've read it too. There's no way in hell she's ever going to forgive you, so stop beating yourself up over it. Focus on the bigger problem at hand, bro, and stop trying to fix your past. Focus on Zalgo and the apocalypse he's trying to bring about.”

BEN stood up and grabbed another apple from the bowl, leaving Jeff on the floor.

“Just think about it, bro, and stop bugging her,” BEN said. “You'll just get yourself killed. You're not kids who live across the street from each other anymore. You're both killers, and you can't fix that. Remember that none of us picked this life...except maybe Jack, but he's weird even for us.”

BEN reached out to pat Jeff's shoulder, but Jeff flinched away. BEN hesitated and sighed.

“I'm going to try to get Silver out of his game again before Slender shows up again,” he said. “Take it easy, man.”

BEN left the kitchen, and Jeff stayed on the floor. The voice roared in his ears and his hands fell from his head to the tile, scratching the slate.

For him, Jane was never just the girl across the street. She was the girl he could never get, the girl he'd always liked since he first saw her. He'd lost so much when the voice held his mind hostage and took advantage of the rage he held towards Randy and his friends: his parents, his brother, his life. The one person in his life had been completely ruined towards him, hurt in both mind and body.

Really, Jeff couldn't blame Jane for how she acted towards him now, and knew he was far beyond redemption. He knew he could never get her to believe what he knew as a fact, knew he could never take back what he did. Knowing didn't make a difference every time he saw her though. He wanted to do something, to show he was still there, the Jeff she used to know. He knew there was nothing he could do, though.

But knowing that made him feel all the more alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Admittedly, Jeff hadn't had much use for the 'gym' in the estate's basement. The estate and the presence of Slenderman from time to time seemed to keep the voice to a muffled roar, so he'd only seen the gym once before on the tour the masked proxy had given him.

However, after the encounter with Jane in the kitchen, the voice roared and he had punched a hole in the wall before leaving the kitchen to go straight to gym, decidingfuck the consequences. Slenderman could suck it as far as he was concerned at the moment. Luckily for both him and the other residents in the house, he was alone when he arrived to the gym and any further visitors to the room were discouraged by the sight of him.

After two and a half hours in the gym, his frustration abated to a tolerable level and the voice reduced somewhat in volume. He still felt unstable and unsafe in his head, but figured it was someone else's problem if they crossed him the wrong way on the way back to his room.

Jeff peeled off his hoodie at some point during his 'work out', so he collected it and threw a towel around his neck as he exited the gym. As he closed the door to the basement, he saw the hooded proxy scurry up the staircase ahead of him with two cardboard boxes in his arms.

So Slenderman was back. Well, whatever news he had could wait until after a shower.

He climbed the stairs up to the second floor, making his way to his room. The shower didn't last as long as he had wanted it to, and soon he sat on his bed, wearing only pants with his hoodie and shirt beside him. No one had knocked on his door yet to drag him down to Slenderman's meeting, so he was left with time on his hands.

Jeff ran his fingers over the now-white scars on his face. While the Cheshire grin had healed closed somewhat, his grin was still much wider than the average person's smile, and tended to make anyone who saw it either queasy or terrified.

It was one of thew few things about himself he didn't mind. After all, he had done it to himself, even if he had been under the voice's influence when he carved it into his face.

The tennis ball was once again in its rightful place in his hand, and he was strongly contemplating throwing against the ceiling again to aggravate whatever fucker lived upstairs again. He was ready for a fight now, egged on by the voice in his head.

Jeff leaned back against the foot board of the bed and prepared to throw the ball at the ceiling when he saw a movement outside the window. Movement aside from Jack and whatever less human creatures running around on the green outside the house in the morning was rare, so his interest piqued. He stood up and stalked over to the window to get a better look.

The masked proxy had just arrived on the green via slenderwalking. In his arms was a girl, probably not much older than Jeff himself, who was shaking violently.

Well, that was interesting. Was that the new arrival? She didn't look like much.

Jeff leaned against the window, bare arm supporting his body away from the cold glass, to watch the commotion down below.

The proxy carefully let the girl's feet down, with an arm still hooked under her own. To no one's surprise except the proxy's, the girl's legs gave out and she went tumbling down to the grass. Jeff watched as the proxy panicked, reaching out for the girl to try to help her up.

The girl scooted away from him, first holding out her hands, palms out, and then a solitary finger. Apparently she thought she had this, and just needed a moment. Like that would happen. Even after Jeff's first time being a tag along with slenderwalking was no walk in the park. He had felt like he was going to lose his lunch.

Surprisingly, though, the girl managed to stagger to her feet under the proxy's watchful eye and clutched at her stomach...

And promptly threw up.

Jeff chuckled as the proxy flipped out, unsure what to do. Now clutching at both her head and stomach, the girl back pedaled a few steps, but remained on her feet. Finally gathering what little wits he had about him, the proxy approached her and picked her up again. Jeff was hoping that the girl would throw up on the proxy this time; surely the change in direction wasn't helping her stomach. To his disappointment though, she didn't. Her eyes closed and she let the proxy carry her into the estate.

Jeff's breath fogged against the window before he drew back and walked to his bed. He had no idea why Slenderman chose the proxies he did. Neither seemed particularly bright in his opinion, and neither had much of a stomach for their line of work when their boss wasn't directly in control of them. He pulled a black shirt over his head as a knock sounded at the door.

Speak of the devil.

Jeff opened the door to the hooded proxy, who was shaking in his shoes. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“What?” he snarled, and the proxy flinched. Seemed like someone was still a little antsy after getting choked.

“M-meeting,” the proxy stuttered. “Downstairs. Ten minutes. It's mandatory.”

“Fine,” Jeff grumbled. The proxy hesitated for a moment and Jeff faked a lunge towards him. He watched as the proxy tripped over himself to get away and chuckled. Fucking with Slenderman's stupid proxies never got old. He stepped back inside to grab his hoodie and knife, and then locked the door behind him as he left the room.

When he made his way down to the living area, he was greeted with the sight of the masked proxy sitting on the back of the couch. Upon further inspection, he was trying to keep a wet cloth on the girl's head, which was proving more difficult than it should have been, as she kept taking it off. Jeff was careful to stay far enough back not to draw their attention.

“I'm fine,” she insisted, hand going to move the cloth of her head.

“You're not fine,” the proxy said, putting the cloth back in its place. “You threw up on the green and nearly fainted.”

“Okay then,” she sighed, and moved the cloth off of her forehead again. “I'm not fine right now, but I'll be fine. Just give me a little time and space.”

“You know I can't do that,” he said. “Not right now at least.”

He went to move the cloth back on her head but she swatted his hand and scowled.

“Stop coddling me,” she said shortly. “I agreed to this, didn't I? I'll have to go through a lot worse than this in my tenure here.”

“With some coercion,” he insisted, “and not if we can prevent it.”

“But this is potentially the apocalypse we're dealing with,” she shot back. “Deal with the big things and leave the small stuff to me, alright?”

“But--” he started, but a familiar white hand appeared on his shoulder. Jeff could hear the crackle of static over the voice in his mind.

“Timothy, stop being such a mother hen,” came Slenderman's voice in their minds. “Escort her up to her room and leave her to recover for the night. She'll be alright. In the mean time, we have a meeting to hold in the library.”

The proxy seemed somewhat embarrassed while the girl's face held a faint trace of smugness. It seemed Jeff hadn't escaped Slenderman's attention yet, though. He could feel the being regarding him with no small amount of scrutiny.

“Jeffrey, stop terrorizing my proxies,” he scolded. “Don't think it has escaped my attention. I believe the saying goes, 'pick on someone your own size.' There are plenty of others in the estate who would stand up to your harassment better than my poor proxies.”

Jeff offered Slenderman a smirk and a shrug, and turned to leave to library. However, he felt someone's eyes on him and looked over his shoulder to see the girl studying him as the proxy helped her onto her feet. He opened his still too-wide mouth and waggled his tongue at her. She paled and the proxy fussed again as her knees gave out.

Jeff laughed as he made his way to library, which had a level for each floor of the house. Everyone who resided in the estate was there, leaning on the railing of upper ledges or peeking out from the shadows. Gathering here really was just a formality, as Slenderman could really talk to all of them via telepathy, but no one dared to miss his summons.

Most of the chairs were taken, but it seemed like BEN had saved him a seat. Jeff plopped down in the chair. Beside BEN, Silver sulked, presumably coerced from his game from Slenderman's summons. The number of limbs Silver had at any one time depended really on his mood, and with how black it currently was, all of them were missing and the stumps bled. His torso leaned against the back of the chair.

Jeff noticed, however, that there was no sign of Jane. Was she really stupid enough to miss this? He doubted it. She was probably somewhere back in the shadows where he couldn't see her.

“Your attention please, everyone,” came Slenderman's voice. Everyone's head turned to the main floor entrance of the library. “As most of you have heard, tonight we're going to be discussing both a new restriction and a new resident of the estate.

“However, the thing to keep in mind is that after this meeting, if you choose to remain at the estate, you will be expected to join the more offensive approach I plan to take to this Zalgo situation,” he said. Murmurs echoed through the room.

“Our newest resident is not like us, so to say,” he said, “nor is she a proxy of mine. Her particular set of skills will not only allow us to find new allies to join in this war against Zalgo, but will also allow us to act in advance of Zalgo and track his movements. You are not to harm her if you expect to still receive protection.

“Her room is located up on the second floor,” he continued to explain. “If anyone of you have past allies or have heard of others in the same situation, I expect you to report to her with their last known location and any additional information. As well, she may have information for any of you to further explain your place in the world. Seemingly, some of your stories are not as young as they seem.

“That is all for tonight. You are all dismissed.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

 As Tim kept reminding her, this wasn't a shelter full of innocent kittens and puppies she was helping.

She just needed to take a deep breath and remember that this had been her decision, albeit probably a very poor, potentially lethal decision.

But how could Rose say no after seeing the tall being, after being told she could be the difference between the current world and one both ruled and ruined by inhuman monsters?

Rose knew she couldn't say know, even though Slenderman told her she could, told her he had never given the chance to back out to anyone else before. The pain in Tim's eyes told her this was true.

Tim had grabbed her by the shoulders then, mask pulled up onto his head, and pleaded with her to think this through. She might be killed, he said, or tortured and driven so insane she would plead and beg and scream every day for someone to kill her, only to be met with silence.

But how could Rose say no after facing a being that could prove all of her theories true? How could she not take this opportunity? It was the passion of her life, after all.

Surely the stars had aligned for all of this to happen. With at least one semester off of university because of a lack of financial support from her divorcing parents (who had pledged to pay her tuition), Rose found herself in a coffee shop on her day off from the housekeeping job she had found to pay for rent and food each month.

With her little laptop and the cheapest cup of coffee the shop had to offer, Rose followed threads that transcended time and cultures. Myths from civilizations had, over time, evolved and twisted into almost unrecognizable urban legends and stories on the internet. In a way, they were mankind's last remaining predator beside itself, tales that while intangible kept those who knew they weren't real away from fates that would surely win Darwin Awards.

She had compiled a huge directory of these myths and stories on her laptop, backed up a million times over and then a million times again, to use years in the future for a thesis (but who knew if that was going to happen anymore?). She had never imagined, sitting there with her legs criss-crossed in a ratty armchair with heavy bags under blue eyes, that any of the tales in her directory were true. Sure, almost all tales had some grain of truth, like the Chupacabra and the coyotes with mange in the southern United States and northern Mexico, but had anyone asked her if she believed them?

No, she would have said, of course not.

But that day, the stars or fate or some god had decided her fate and everything went to hell.

Rose had felt watched for at least a week, but assumed whoever was watching was just a creepy guy hoping to drug her coffee and nab her on the way home. When a man approached her armchair fort in the corner, she grabbed her coffee and eyed him with suspicion. Sure, he had roguishly good looks and sparkling blue eyes, but a lot of stories in her directory started that way and ended with a gruesome murder.

At the same time, though, she wanted to groan at her thoughts. It was no wonder she couldn't find a boyfriend with her head stuck in fairy tales. She really needed to get a life.

Seeing her caution, the man held up his hands in surrender.

“I'm sorry to bother you miss,” he said, “but I couldn't help but notice you seem to be working on recording myths.”

Rose looked him up and down, still cautious.

“A directory of sorts, actually,” she replied hesitantly, “detailing the connections between tales over the course of ages.”

Rose cringed internally at what just came out of her mouth. Thinking back on it now, she though he'd been trying to flirt with her and she had ruined the encounter with her obsession.

However, he grinned and his eyes lit up.

“Excellent,” he exclaimed. “So what can you tell me about Slenderman?”

Rose's hesitation heated up into fury. She hated when people asked about stories on the internet. Each phenomena, like Slenderman, had its own background and ties to history, but once she started to explain, people lost interest. Mystery was always more alluring than fact, it seemed.

“Nothing you'd want to hear, surely,” was her clipped response. Rose turned her attention back to her laptop and ignored the man in front of her. At this point, she hoped he'd give up and leave.

To her surprise, he pulled up a chair beside her and turned it around backwards so his arms rested on the backrest.

“Try me,” he challenged, and so she tried.

Rose explained how there wasn't much in the way of myths or tales directly relating to the myth of Slenderman, despite claims to the contrary on the Internet. However, aspects of his story had their own place in history. The proxies and Slenderman's symbol were excellent examples, she claimed. Although most to all accounts were either forced from torture or desperation, the plight of the European witch was very similar that of a proxy, between bearing the mark of their benefactor to having unnatural abilities.

To further damn Slenderman in the direction of the Devil, and perhaps away from the witch argument (though very similar), the cases of his proxies exhibited traits of demonic possession. Proxies, again, seemed to possess supernatural abilities that mirrored those of their benefactor. As well, like in cases of possessions, electronics malfunctioned and glitched when the source of the possession was near by.

Continuing with her rant, Rose went on to say Slenderman's description matched modern interpretations of both the Devil and the Antichrist with his trim appearance. The mark left behind by Slenderman could also been interpreted as the mark of the beast.

When Rose finished, the man just stared at her.

“Did I break you?” she asked. He blinked and shook his head.

“No, it's just...a lot,” he admitted. “I'm impressed though. You're very passionate about the subject and know your stuff. I'm Timothy, by the way. Call me Tim.”

He held out his hand, and she shook it gingerly.

“Rose,” she said. “Just Rose.”

“Just Rose, huh?” he teased. “What's your full name then?”

She stuck out her tongue at him.

“Wouldn't you like to know?” she teased back.

“I would,” he said. “Hey, you should come grab a bite to eat with me and maybe we can continue this conversation about Slenderman.”

“It's not so much a conversation as it is a one sided rant,” she mused. “And, it depends. Is this a date or do you actually want to keep listening to me ranting?”

Tim laughed.

“Just to talk for now,” he said. Tim grinned and Rose's heart stuttered a little. Damn his good looks and damn her inability to forge any sort of romantic relationships. This was going to end very badly.

“Okay, then,” she replied, packing up her laptop and tossing her cup (which had been drained during her rant) into a nearby bin. Tim helped her stand up and she followed him out the door.

Rose didn't realize until it was too late that Tim had lead her down an alley and away from the safe thoroughfares. She wished she had listened to the voice in her head that warned her it would turn out like this, with a too-handsome man and a grisly end.

She heard a noise behind her and started to turn around, but something smashed into the back of her head. Before she crumbled to the ground and everything faded to black, she saw yellow and Tim turning around, putting on a strange mask.

Rose drifted back into consciousness, and everything hurt. Her hands were on wet grass and she was leaned up against what she guessed to be a tree. The sun had set while she was out and she dimly registered that it was night.

As she blinked through the pounding pain in her head, she looked around and someone with a yellow hoodie standing a few feet away with her laptop bag's strap over their shoulder. Before she could find her voice to protest, someone landed beside her, having jumped down from above. She flinched away and hit her head on the tree behind her. The person beside her reached out a hand to touch her face as she groaned in pain, but Rose flinched away again.

The person pulled off their mask.

Tim.

Rose opened her mouth to scream, but he clapped a gloved hand over her mouth.

“I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry,” he whispered hurriedly, “but you wouldn't have followed me into the forest and you're what we need, I think.”

He pulled her head forward and the hand left her mouth to gently touch the area on the back of her head. She winced.

“I think you'll be okay,” he whispered again, “but I don't have time to check it fully. He wants to talk with you right now.”

Tim drew back out of her line of sight.

“Who's 'he'?” was all she could croak, and then he formed out of the shadows in front of her, exactly like how he was described in the stories, exactly as he was recorded in her directory. Rose could hear static through the painful fog in her brain and her mouth went dry.

“Rosie,” a voice echoed in her head.

“No,” she whispered. “I'm not her. I'm only just Rose.”

Slenderman seemed to sigh.

“I see,” he said. “You resemble her in many ways. I was mistaken.”

“I know,” she replied. “You knew her?”

“Yes,” he sighed again. “A long time ago for you humans, but it seemed like just yesterday for me. But that was then and there.”

He gave her his ultimatum, and Tim held her shoulders, begging her to think it over.

Slenderman asked once more.

How could she ever say no? And with that, she signed her soul over to the devil.

Because like Faust, she had a price.


	5. Chapter 5

 When Rose arrived at the 'estate', as Tim called it, she reminded herself she had the opportunity to back out of this hellish Faustian deal. However, like the reckless fool she was, she agreed for the sake of her passion (and maybe the world, maybe) when she should have run screaming the other way.

So after losing her footing and then throwing up on the green from a mix of nervousness, dizziness, and exhaustion, she took a deep breath and pulled on her big pants. Rose let Tim carry her into the estate, steeling herself for was to come.

It was still hard to stomach the changes her life went through in the past twenty-four hours. Rose spent most of the day following the encounter with Slenderman in a dizzy fog of pain and fending of Tim's constant stream of apologies when he was around.

After Rose's laptop had been returned to her, Slenderman and the other proxy melted back into the shadows, presumably to set the tall being's plans into motion. Rose drew her legs up to her chest and shuddered, curling into a small ball. She had never done anything important in her life. The most she could claim to her name besides getting into her state's university was graduating high school and winning a gingerbread house contest when she was 10. Now, though, Rose had been thrown in the middle of an age old fight, two groups of predators ready to tear each other apart for an ignorant prey, which she used to be.

Tim plopped down again on the grass beside her after his boss melted away.

“Who was she?” he asked. “He never calls anyone by anything else than their full name.”

It took Rose a moment to respond, not realizing at first he spoke to her, and then not realizing who he was talking about.

“My grandmother,” she croaked out. “My crazy, crazy grandmother.”

She shivered violently in the chill of the autumn night air. Tim shrugged off the high neck jacket he wore and draped it around her shoulders, and she gave him a grateful look. They sat for a moment in silence on the forest floor. After Slenderman had left, a few hesitant crickets had started to sing again and Rose could hear a deep voiced owl somewhere off in the distance. Even though it they were not his prey, the animals seemed to hold some amount of fear for Slenderman.

“I wonder how they knew each other,” Tim mused out loud. He jumped when she laughed hoarsely.

“Now that's one thing I actually don't want to know right now,” Rose said, “because I have a nasty feeling it's going to be some sort of a life shattering revelation and I've had about enough of those tonight, don't you think?”

The proxy chuckled softly, obviously agreeing with her. Rose tried and failed miserably to get on her feet, but Tim took her laptop bag from her and gently helped her stand up, allowing her to brace against him.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Well, the plan was to move you out to the estate, which is about forty miles from where we currently are,” Tim replied. “It's not safe for you to be on your own now that you're associated with us. If Zalgo got his hands on you, he'd probably use you against us, and you wouldn't have a choice like you did this time.”

“Why did Slenderman give me a choice?” Rose asked. “I mean, I know you probably didn't get to choose, so what makes me so special?”

“I don't know,” he admitted with a sigh. “Maybe it's something to do with your grandmother. Had I been in your situation though, especially knowing what I do now, I would have ran the other way. I don't know if you're stupid or just crazy.”

Rose felt a chill run through her body. It occurred to her that Tim was probably resentful she had been give a choice, where as he had been forced into the life as one of Slenderman's proxies.

“I'm sorry,” she blurted out. His chuckle that followed had an edge to it.

“Why are you sorry?” he asked. “If anyone should be saying that, it should be me, see as I'm the one who cause you to have that lovely injury on the back of your head. Besides, I don't know you nearly well enough to hate you yet, and trust me, that's a very good thing.”

Rose felt fear sink into the bottom of her stomach, and shivered. She knew she couldn't allow herself to forget Tim was a proxy, capable of unspeakable acts and probably responsible for more than a few murders.

With no response from Rose, Tim reached up with his unoccupied hand and pulled the black lipped mask down over his face again.

“Now, you're going to want to close your eyes for this part,” he said, “because there's no doubt you're going to want to throw up after this if you keep them open.”

Tim slenderwalked them back to town with Rose on his arm, teleporting in short bursts. Even with her eyes closed, Rose's stomach turned every time she felt herself displaced through space. He left her in her small apartment with marching orders to only pack what she absolutely needed in the boxes that had mysteriously appeared outside her front door.

“We'll take care of the rest of it,” he had claimed. “Now, I'm off to make you disappear as subtly as possible, namely at your job. You'd be surprised how many bases the excuse of a family emergency covers.”

He paused at the door.

“Do you have any family you need to take care of before you leave?” he asked. “It's best to not have wanted posters up around town. It draws more attention than is needed.”

She shook her head, throat still dry from her earlier terror and teleporting. Tim nodded and left, closing the door softly behind him, leaving Rose in an apartment that would soon no longer be hers, in a town with which she would no longer have a connection by the end of the day. The sun started to rise and beams of light filtered in through her blinds. She squinted her eyes against them.

No, her family wouldn't miss her. The grandparents who had cared about her were long dead, and she hadn't heard from her parents since August when she had moved out, declining to stay in the middle of the chaos they caused in her hometown. It was now November, and for at least two months now, Rose had given up on hearing from them, knowing she had eternally pissed them off by refusing to pick a side. The fights had started before she was born, the first her parents could recall being over her name.

So no, she wouldn't be missed. Hardly anyone knew her in this town, even though she had attended the university here. Her biggest wish was to be left alone for years, to be removed from the chaos of her parents and her classmates, who hadn't taken kindly to her full first name. Peace was what Rose wished for, and now she potentially had it. From what she guessed, the residents of the estate weren't going to be overly friendly, which was fine by her.

Rose spent the rest of the morning packing, starting with her books and research, which filled most of the boxes. Her clothes, bedding, and toiletries only took up a pitiful two boxes. By noon, the apartment was nearly bare, save a bit of furniture and the pots in the kitchen. Rose just barely sat down on her bare mattress when a knock sounded at the door. Through the peephole, Rose saw the yellow hooded proxy with the strange face covering standing outside.

She undid the chain and the lock to let him in, and he made a beeline for the boxes. When Rose approached him to help, he waved her off, not wanting any assistance. She pried the apartment key off her key chain and offered it to him, and he shoved it in his pocket without comment. The proxy picked up two boxes, one under each arm, and exited the apartment, leaving Rose staring after him.

With nothing to do, Rose sat back down on the bed with her laptop bag at her side, and drew her knees up to her chest. She wanted badly to take a nap, but decided, between a possible concussion and the proxy heading in and out of her apartment, it probably wasn't a great idea. She leaned over the bed to plug her laptop charger into the wall and booted it up. Maybe she could work on her directory while she waited for Tim to return.

Thirty minutes and one appearance from the hooded proxy later, Rose gave up, exasperated. She had no idea how her mind could oscillate between ridiculously tired and in pain and being inexplicably charged with excitement. She leaned her head back against the wall and clicked on her web browser to check the conspiracy theorist websites. While not the best source of information, she wondered if she could track Zalgo's movements through half crazed statements.

Tim found her like that several hours later with her red-brown hair piled on top of her head, taking notes in a document and a map crudely doodled upon in a paint program. She had failed to notice him enter, and so when he spoke her name, she startled back and smacked her head against the wall.

“I'm sorry!” he exclaimed. “Apparently I'm to be the source of all your injuries today. I've everything in order and my friend will finish up here. What doesn't go with you will be put in a storage unit for now. I've also managed to get your deposit back.”

Rose's mouth gaped and Tim smiled.

“How?” she asked. “There's no way you could have gotten it back. My landlord required a thirty day notice to get that back!”

“That's for me to know and you to hopefully never find out,” he replied and Rose felt the fear stir in the pit of her stomach again. “Now, are you ready to go?”

He held out his hand, and Rose closed the laptop and packed it away.

Slenderwalking back to the estate was no walk in the park, even though Tim carried her in his arms. Rose felt particularly sick this time around. When Tim let her down, her legs gave out. This time, though, she rejected Tim's help and gave herself a moment to breathe. Rose managed to stagger to her feet and was fine for a few seconds, before she clutched her stomach and threw up.

Tim scooped her up again, carefully avoiding the sick on the green. Rose's stomach turned again, but she resisted the urge to throw up again.

“I'm sorry,” he apologized again.

“It's fine,” she replied, and closed her eyes for a moment. As they approached the enterance to the estate, Tim carefully rubbed her spine with his fingers of the hand that supported her back.

“You know this isn't a shelter full of kittens and puppies you've volunteered to help,” he reminded her quietly. “This is a den of ravenous, insane wolves.”

“I know,” She whispered. “I know.”

When they entered the estate, Tim had set her down on the couch and started to mother hen over her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see people (beings?) pass by the couch. One silhouette stayed though, probably just a curious observer. She swatted and grumbled at Tim as he tried to place a damp cloth on her head. Luckily, Slenderman had shown up to stop that, and then addressed their watcher. As Tim helped her back up on her feet, she looked up to see who Slenderman had addressed.

Jeff the Killer stood on the other side of the couch, not impressed with Slenderman. When he had noticed her staring, he waggled his tongue at her.

Rose felt like being sick all over again.


	6. Chapter 6

 Rose felt green around the gills when Tim pulled her back up by the arm. Jeff walked off, laughing, after her legs gave out yet again. Tim didn't seem too pleased with Jeff, but then again, neither had Slenderman. She could see his mouth turn into a scowl in the space between the mask and his lower face. She desperately hoped Jeff hadn't interpreted her status as a free agent and non-proxy as being 'someone his own size', as Slenderman had put it when he had scolded the apathetic killer. The last thing she needed was a potential psychopath bullying her while she tried to puzzle out the locations of myths and Zalgo's warpath.

On the other hand, Rose was grateful Jeff was her first encounter in this nuthouse. His appearance hadn't shocked her as much his being real had. She'd always thought he'd been one of the more fantastical urban myths floating around on the Internet, though she wondered now if his counterpart, Jane the Killer, was real as well. Rose knew all of her encounters in the estate couldn't possibly go as well as the first had, weak knees aside.

Jeff's appearance was much less startling than the picture that circled the internet, though she could see perhaps at one time he had looked like that. White scars streaked down his face to the corners of a burned, chapped mouth. He had small, discrete stitches around his eyes attached to what she hoped were false, gray eyelids. God help her if they used to belong to someone else. Seeing as the flesh around his eyes had been cauterized, Rose didn't want to imagine the pain he would have gone through to reopen the wounds to connect the muscles to the new eyelids, though she saw the necessity for the procedure. Without eyelids, even with constant eye drops and care, Jeff would have probably gone blind very quickly after his story had ended.

After both Jeff and Slenderman had left, Tim carefully lead her up the stairs, carefully keeping a hold on her arm when she stumbled or her feet caught on a step. This day had been entirely too overwhelming, and Rose's head swam in pain and confusion. Had it not been for her head and Tim's hand on her arm, she would have believed she was dreaming. What a messed up dream this would have been, she mused sourly. More of a nightmare, really.

Luckily for Rose, her room was on the second floor. The many doors freaked her out slightly, reminding her of something she couldn't exactly put her finger on. Tim led her around the corner and a few doors down, and unlocked a room that faced out over the green encased by the estate. The room wasn't much to look at.

The walls were a plain off white, and there were two windows looking out over the green with a bookcase between them. Boxes were stacked against the wall next to a door that she assumed lead to the bathroom. Somehow, Rose couldn't picture a bunch of murderers nicely sharing one bathroom per floor when they got up for the day like she had in the dorms.

A bare bed and a desk with a nice swivel chair were positioned against the opposite wall of the boxes. There was a huge map mounted on the wall opposite the windows that almost took up the entire wall. Beneath it, there was a set of five square wooden cubbyholes, made from the same pale pine the floor was made out from.

Tim walked her over to the chair and sat her down at it. Rose put down her laptop on the desk and watched as he lowered the blinds and snapped the curtains shut.

“You'll want to close these around sunset everyday,” he said as he turned around and went over to the boxes. “Most of the...residents...are active at night and old habits die hard. If you don't close them, you'll probably find yourself the victim of several nasty shocks.”

Tim dug through the box, which Rose realized held her bedding and many fluffy blankets, and threw the sheets onto the bed.

“I can get that,” she protested, and tried to stand up. Her head swam and she sat right back down in the swivel chair.

“Judging by that reaction, I'd say not,” he said and started to make the bed. “Besides, this is better than attending the 'house' meeting the boss has called. Anyway, if you'll look in your desk, you'll see some colored pins. How you use them is up to you, but I know he'd like to have a visual representation of your findings. If you want anything else, you can just let us know.”

Rose pulled open a drawer and was surprised at the sheer variety of pins.

“Other than thread, I think I'm good,” she said as Tim finished making the bed. He smoothed out her grandmother's quilt on top of the sheets and fluffed the pillows.

“I think you're good to sleep now,” he said and helped her onto her feet, supporting most her weight. “I assume you were smart enough not to sleep earlier.”

Rose plopped down onto the bed, comfier than the crappy one she had in her previous apartment. Then again, everything here (other than the residents) was nicer than anything she'd ever known.

“I didn't,” she said. “I was afraid I might not wake up or something. Besides, there as a lot going on.”

Tim sat down beside her and took off his mask. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“I'm still sorry about earlier,” he mumbled. “This day must have been hell for you. I have to admit though, I'm glad you're here. I can't remember the last time I really talked to someone so normal.”

“It's fine,” Rose said. “It's not what I expected to be doing with my life at this point, but I couldn't really say no. What about the other proxy, though?”

Tim winced.

“He's...okay,” he admitted. “He's in a tough spot right now and not much of a talker. Most of the time, he's high on pills and God knows what else. I know what it feels like though. I've been at that spot myself.”

Rose could see him watching her out of the corner of his eye, waiting for her reaction. To be honest, she didn't exactly blame him. Had she not been offered a choice in this change, had she been forced to be something that was nearly monster like, she'd seek an out too. She kept her face peaceful and shrugged.

“I see,” she said.

The room was quiet for a few moments, but not awkwardly so. Both of them let the subject rest. Rose's eyes were starting to drift shut. Tim hopped off the bed and stretched before replacing the mask on his face.

“Well, the big man calls,” he said. “Get some sleep and feel better. I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on you. If you're up early, you can safely open the windows once the sun starts to rise, though no guarantees about scares not happening during the day. If you do get up early, you might get to see Jack be a crazy man on the green during his morning run with some of the other less human members of our group. It never gets old to see him be chased by Smile.”

With that, he headed towards the door. After Tim had left the room, Rose carefully got of the bed and knelt before the box she suspected held her pajamas. Pulling out a pair of sweats and a long tee shirt, she quickly changed and wrapped herself in a blanket and her quilt, not bothering to turn off the light. If how today had gone was any indicator, she probably should just leave it on the ward off anything that didn't like light, like say, the Rake.

Just as she began to drift off to sleep, she heard a soft knock at the door. Thinking it was Tim again, she unsteadily wandered across the room the door with a blanket around her shoulders and opened it, instantly regretting it and wishing she had asked for a peephole.

Instead of Tim, Jeff stood outside her door, leaning on the frame with one arm and towering over her small frame. Fear shot through her spine and she resisted the urge to slam the door in his smirking face.

“Can I help you?” she asked after a moment, trying to keep her voice from trembling. His grinned stretched a wider, just a little too wide for the average human grin.

“So you have a voice after all,” he said, and pushed the door open and walked past her into the room. “You're looking a little less green than earlier. Slenderman said something about reporting to you with information and locations. I figured I'd get it out of the way.”

He looked back over his shoulder and Rose pulled the fleece blanket tighter around her shoulders, trying to not curl up like a little bug and die in terror.

“I suppose you could do it tonight,” she mumbled as he wandered over to study the map. She opened the drawer and started to pull out the pins when she felt fingers on the back of her head. Startled, Rose dropped the box of pins and whipped around, blanket piling around her feet. Jeff stood behind her, outstretch hand reaching out to her head. He held up his hands.

“Whoa there, I'm actually not trying to hurt you,” he said. “However, you have a very nice clump of dried blood in your hair. I was trying to help you out there.”

Rose, eyes narrowed in suspicion, carefully reached up to the back of her head to touch her injury. She found her hair was matted and her fingers came back with dried red clumps and specks sticking to the ends. She looked up from her fingers to Jeff's face and saw the smile (at least the real one) was gone. Without the creepy smile, he looked almost human, and Rose didn't like that.

“Dude, I thought you were supposed to be kind of removed from this whole war,” he said, “and only providing support from the sidelines. What the fuck happened to you and why didn't those dumb ass proxies stop it? That's no small amount of blood.”

She shoved the pins at him and swiped a washcloth and brush from boxes behind him.

“Use a green one to mark your home location and white ones to mark your last five locations,” she mumbled and staggered into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

She pulled her hair out of the messy up-do it was in and wet the wash cloth with warm water. She carefully dabbed at the wound, slowly turning the washcloth red with both dried blood and blood that still oozed lazily out of her head. Then, Rose ran a brush through her hair, cautiously pulling out the clumps of blood that matted her hair. Since she didn't have much in the way of bandages at the moment, she folded the washcloth to a cleaner side and pressed it against the wound, hissing quietly at the pain.

Rose expected Jeff to leave after placing his pins on the map. When she walked out of the bathroom with the washcloth still pressed to the back of her head, however, he was still there, leaning back in the swivel chair with his arms crossed against his chest.

“My, you're temperamental, darling,” he said, no small amount of sarcasm dripping in his voice. “You'll fit in here, alright. You couldn't have honestly expected me to just leave with my question unanswered, could you?”

Rose backed away from him, hand reaching behind her for the knob of the bathroom door. If she had to spend the night in the bathtub until Tim came to rescue her in the morning then so be it. However, Jeff shot out of the chair and across the room, catching her wrist and yanking her away from the door and in front of him. With her arm bent behind her back and one of his hands supporting the washcloth on her head, he forced her to walk to the bed and sit down. He released her hand and roughly turned her chin away from him and peeled off the washcloth. Rose hissed again.

“Well, that's a nasty injury you've got,” he said. “I'm going to ask again: where did you get it? If those stupid proxies can't protect our only chance of getting rid of Zalgo, then I might need to.”

Rose winced at his probing fingers. No, no, no, she didn't want Jeff watching after her. That was just asking for disaster. His finger poked at the base of her skull and she realized he was still waiting for an answer.

“The proxies,” she admitted. “One of them hit me with something when they were trying to corral me so they could haul me off to Slenderman.”

Jeff's eyes darkened as he replaced the washcloth on her head and put her hand on it to hold it.

“Which one?” he asked.

“Does it matter?” she spat back.

“Which one hit you?” he asked again, and Rose's courage failed her.

“The hooded one,” she said. “But it's not like they could have gotten me to come with them any other way.”

“I don't fucking care what their reasons were,” Jeff snapped. “Fucking dumb asses could have caused some serious damage, and they need to learn a little more finesse. Hell, even I'm more graceful in my murders and I'm a fucking bull in a china shop. Stay here.”

“Where are you going?” she asked as he stood up. “You're honestly not going to go after them, are you?”

“What, you actually care?” he spat back. “I'm not going to do anything right now, because you need that bandaged and I doubt you actually have anything with you to do that.”

With that, Jeff stormed out of the room. In the time he was gone, Rose carefully hopped off the bed and retrieved the blanket she dropped earlier by the desk. Retreating back to the bed and not bothering to lock the door, she wrapped herself up in it with only her face sticking out. Okay, so maybe he wasn't going to bully her, but this was just as bad. It also made her realize these people considered her to be a very important pawn in this war.

The door opened again and Jeff entered again, this time with a tube of some sorts and a roll of white bandages in his hand. Somewhat dazed, she allowed him to pull her back over to the edge of the bed and he yanked the blanket of off her head. She pulled her knees up to her chest as fingers ran through her hair as he gathered it away from the injury, then applying the antibiotic solution to the wound. She made a small sound as it stung slightly.

He made a soft hushing sound behind her and started wrapping the bandage around her head. After securing it, he let her hair fall back into place. Rose immediately retreated into the safety of her blanket with her face outside again and Jeff sighed as she glared at him, hoping he would just leave.

“You don't have to be so defensive and jumpy here,” he said. “You'll probably be safer here than any other place on earth once the war gets into full swing. You might get scared, but you'll be safe. No one on our side will dare cross Slenderman to hurt you, and no one will let you be harmed if any of Zalgo's goons show up.”

Rose made a small noise of acknowledgment and Jeff stood up. He gestured towards the map.

“I've got my pins up, not really sure what you plan to do with them,” he said. “I might check on you tomorrow to make sure the proxies didn't fuck up again, but I need to hit the hay. See ya.”

He walked out the door, engaging the lock behind him. After she was sure he was gone, she went to the bathroom, flipped on the light, and then flipped off the light in the main room. It was better than having the main light on, at least. Rose flopped over on the bed, resisting the urge to itch her forehead where her bandage was. She wiggled underneath the quilt and sighed, head pounding and spots dancing across her vision. She couldn't even imagine what tomorrow was going to look like.


	7. Chapter 7

 Jeff woke before the sun rose the next morning, driven into consciousness by his eyes itching. Groaning, he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the lights. He blindly felt around for a small bottle of eye drops, and held his new eyelids open as he carefully let a few drops fall into each eye.

When his consciousness emerged from the fog of insanity following the death of his family and neighbors, he found himself with a bleeding smile and no eyelids. He wandered for a few days, stealing bottles of eye drops from pharmacies to put in his eyes every hour while he tried to battle back the voice long enough to figure out his next move. Jeff had no idea how Slenderman found him or even why he wanted to find Jeff in the first place.

Slenderman had terrified him at first. Back when he was still a normal teenager, he'd been looking for a thrill on the internet and found the tall man's story. Jeff braced himself for a fight, thinking his end had rightfully caught up with him. However, Slenderman merely held out a hand.

“Do you want to keep your sight?” he asked, voice echoing in Jeff's head.

Jeff's guard dropped slightly, surprised by the offer. He'd expected to be dead by now.

“What, not a word about how I've killed my family?” he spat. “Not a word about the people I've killed on the way here? You're just going to reward me with my sight?”

Slenderman seemed to shrug.

“Can I honestly judge when I have done so much worse, child?” he replied. “You have your place to fill among the predators of mankind now, and we are few and far in between. You are no use to me without your sight.”

Slenderman turned to leave, and Jeff followed him through the woods to what seemed to be an abandoned steel mill. Slenderman led him through a door hanging barely on its hinges. Inside the dark, cluttered room stood two masked figures. One had a blue mask with eye holes while the other, wearing a white mask, held a bag dripping what looked to be blood onto the floor.

“What are we doing today, Slendy?” the one with the blue mask asked. “You obviously didn't call me here to socialize, not with that bag of treats your proxy has in his hands.”

“He needs eyelids of some sort,” Slenderman said, obviously more than a little disgruntled at the nickname. “It may be prudent to perform some sort of operation on his mouth, Jackson.”

“No!” Jeff protested, and the three men stared at him. “Only stitch it up so it closes when it heals. I want the scar.”

“Fine, whatever you want kid,” the blue masked man said. “Hop up on this table and we'll start. Leave the payment in the corner, Masky, and I'll get to it later.”

Jeff got up onto a steel table and was promptly stabbed with a syringe. His world spun and the next thing he knew, he was waking up on the steel table, totally alone. The makeshift surgeon had taken two skin grafts from his abdomen to make eyelids and there were a few stitches crisscrossing on his face, but nothing to help it heal other than that. The only evidence anyone else had been there was a pool of blood left behind from the dripping bag.

Jeff blinked, spreading the moisture from the eye drops across the surface of his eyes. Jack hadn't done a bad job on his new eyelids, quite the opposite actually. However, his eyes still got dry from time to time.

His eyes flicked up to the mirror and he ran his fingers through still-dark hair before returning to his bedroom. He picked up the tennis ball from where he left it beside his unmade bed the night before. Jeff prepared to lob it against the opposite wall when he remembered he actually had a neighbor now, though probably not of her own choice. All of the residents of the estate chose rooms away from him, not wanting to be on the end of his knife when he swung back into insanity, so for the longest time he had no neighbors on either side of his room.

Sucked to be the chick next door then, he guessed, although Slenderman had probably placed her there for her own protection. He knew Jeff would be damned if anyone messed with his chance to fuck Zalgo over, even if it meant protecting some chick whose name he didn't even know. Fucking Slenderman knew him too well and Jeff really didn't like that. Then again, Slenderman knew everyone way too well, and it made many of the residents of the estate uncomfortable.

Speaking of the chick next door, Jeff remembered he was going to have a 'word' with the hooded proxy today about his performance on the job recently. Tossing the tennis ball onto the bed, he slid into his hoodie and checked for his knife in his pocket. He quietly stalked out the door, again only wearing socks, and shut the door gently. It'd be no fun if the prey fled before the chase actually began. Jeff started on the third floor and worked his way through the hallways on each floor down to the ground floor. He knew both proxies usually prowled the hallways this time of day and hoped he could find the hooded one without the rat squealing and calling the attention of the other. There weren't many places to hide in the estate as the building was u-shaped with very few obscured spots.

Finally, Jeff found the hooded freak wandering on the ground floor near the mess hall, completely unaware of his impending doom. Jeff crept up on him and tapped his shoulder. The proxy looked around and froze for a half second before taking off down the hallway. Jeff easily caught the shorter man by his throat in three long strides and slammed him against the wall. The proxy coughed and tired to pry Jeff's hand off his throat, but stopped when he felt Jeff's knife at his throat.

“What the fuck do you want from me, man?” the proxy choked out. “Just leave me the fuck alone.”

Jeff laughed in his face and tightened his grip.

“Oh, you didn't get my memo?” he asked. “It's time for your performance review! Let's examine the past year here...”

Jeff dropped the proxy and he gasped for air.

“Oh, I've had some complaints about you being constantly high while on the job, sonny,” Jeff said and shook his head in mock sadness. “Such a shame. That's a mark against you.”

Jeff's foot shot out and caught the proxy in the stomach. The proxy groaned and tried to stand up, but Jeff's foot shoved him back down to the floor. Jeff ground his heel into the proxy's head.

“Next, we've got a few failures to complete work assignments in an efficient manner and being a total dickhead,” Jeff continued and clucked his tongue in disapproval while he knelt by the proxy and forced his head up by grabbing the back of his head. “That's another mark on your report this year. You're not doing too hot, are you?”

Jeff slammed the proxy's face against the floor. He whined in pain as blood began to stain through mouth of the stitched-on face and dripped on the floor.

“Finally, the last incident comes from this week,” Jeff said sweetly, “as by using excessive force, you nearly brain damaged a major player in this war and almost fucked our chances against Zalgo. While you can and do function without a brain on a regular basis, I'm afraid that she can't. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to disciplinary action against you for such poor performance this year.”

The proxy had been trying to crawl away, But Jeff landed another kick, this time on the proxy's chest, and knocked the air out of the hooded man. Jeff picked him up by his hood again and the proxy weakly reached up to where the hoodie started to cut off his air.

“Hopefully, your performance will improve before our next meeting,” Jeff whispered, and slammed the handle of the knife against the back of the proxy's head. The proxy went limp, out cold, and Jeff stood up. He spotted what he knew to be a cleaning supply closet about fifteen feet away. Jeff grabbed the proxy's arms and dragged him to the closet, shoving his unconscious body on top of buckets and bottles, and closed the door to leave the proxy in the dark. Despite having a few drops of blood on his sleeve of his white hoodie, Jeff avoided the small puddle of blood in the hall before making his way to the mess hall, hungry after a very intense performance evaluation. Hopefully the proxy would improve the quality of his work in the future. He'd absolutely hate to do that again, but Jeff would always do what was necessary, especially if it involved violence toward the hooded freak.

During his hunt, the sun rose above the horizon, meaning Jack's morning run was done for the day. When Jeff entered the mess hall, Jack was on the opposite side of the mess hall with Smile, having just finished their run. He could just barely see the tips of the dog's ears above the counter, as Smile was much bigger than the average husky and was more near the size of a Karelian Bear Dog.

Jack looked back over his shoulder from whatever he was doing, mask slightly pulled up and mouth covered in blood. He waved at Jeff and flashed a grin, showing a mouth full of razor sharp teep.

“Lovely day, isn't it Jeff?” he said, and tossed a bloody lump of meat to Smile, whose head bobbed briefly above the counter when he jumped to catch it. “Don't suppose you're responsible for that ruckus in the hallway just now, were you?”

“You wound me by even asking, Jack,” Jeff said in return. “Of course I was.”

Jack chuckled and turned back around, presumably putting together his own gruesome breakfast. Jeff plucked two apples out of the fruit bowl and placed them in his hoodie pocket. He then placed two pieces of bread in the toaster. As soon as his hands were back down by his side, he felt a wet tongue brush against his right hand and he jumped. Smile stood by his side, having silently appeared while he was putting bread in the toaster. The husky wagged its tail and panted, its smiled seeming to grow wider.

Damn dog.

“Smile, stop harassing Jeff,” Jack scolded. The husky stopped panting and tilted his head at Jack. He tossed the dog what looked to be a kidney, but this time Smile slid across the floor to neatly catch it in his mouth instead of jumping to catch it.

“So, what should I say if Slendy asks me about what happened in the hall later?” Jack asked. Jeff noticed the masked man was standing by the refrigerator he suspected held various body parts and figured it was as close of a confirmation to his theory he was going to get without actually inspecting the gory contents.

“Whatever you want, I guess,” Jeff replied, and Smile appeared back by his side, begging as the toast popped up. “Get lost, mutt. I know for a fact you don't eat bread, only meat and Jack's hopes and dreams.”

“Hey!” Jack protested.

Smile whined, and Jack called him back to the other side of the mess hall. Jeff spread butter on the first piece of toast and put the other onto a paper towel. He put two more pieces of bread in the toaster and tried to ignore the squelching from ripping organs on the other side of the room. For Jeff, food and work definitely did not intersect.

“You know, I still don't get why you wouldn't let me fix your face,” Jack remarked through a mouthful of something Jeff didn't want to think about.

“And you never will, so keep your nose out of it,” Jeff snapped at the cannibal and then took a bite of toast and tried to ignore the other man. However, Jack wasn't done yet.

“No seriously, you had to be a lady killer before your incident,” Jack continued,” and even with your nose all fucked up from being broken and burned, you still aren't bad looking. I could still fix your face if you let me.”

“Jack, shut up,” Jeff growled. “I'm already in a shitty mood today because of those fucking proxies and their constant clown show they call working. Unless you want to be the next body in a closet down the hall, I suggest you keep out of it. It's no one's business but my own.”

“Okay, man, whatever you say,” Jack said and tossed Smile another scrap. “But you know the price and where I am if you ever change your mind. You know, just in case you wanted to impress the new girl or Jane or the proxy you keep terrorizing. I don't know how you swing, so it's whatever to me.”

Jeff just growled in response and snatched his toast when it popped up, slamming the pieces onto the paper towel and storming out of the room. This was going to be a day where everyone pissed him off.  


	8. Chapter 8

 Jeff stomped up the stairs with his toast in one hand. When he turned the corner, he could hear quiet voices coming through the door next to his. Hesitating for a moment, he considered whether or not he wanted to crash whatever was going on in the new chick's room. Deciding it might be worth some amount of entertainment, he knocked on the door with his free hand. However, it was not the girl's voice which beckoned him in.

“Come in,” came Slenderman's smooth voice in his head.

Jeff opened the door to see the girl, the masked proxy, and Slenderman having some kind of rendezvous. Slenderman seemed very out of place in the office chair at the girl's desk, looking very cramped and uncomfortable. The proxy was standing by the map, mask on a cubbyhole below him, glaring at him like someone had pissed in his coffee that morning. The girl, however, was still on her bed, wrapped up in a quilt and eating what looked to be like oatmeal. A steaming mug sat on the small nightstand beside the bed.

“Hope I didn't interrupt anything,” Jeff said with a cheeky smile. He wandered in and sat on the floor next to the bed, leaning back against the mattress. He could sense the girl's discomfort, but couldn't bring himself to care.

“Hardly, Jeffrey,” Slenderman replied. “However, you may be able to help me. I have lost contact with one of my proxies recently and he isn't responding to summons. Could the bloodstains on your sleeve have anything to do with it?”

Well, shit. He hadn't expected to be found out so quickly, but perhaps he could still spin this to his advantage. He took a bite out of his toast.

“Of course not,” he replied through a mouth full of toast, and saw Slenderman flinch at his atrocious manners. “But hey, did you ask your proxies why your newest friend has a head injury that needed bandaged? And how about why they didn't bandage it? She looked to be in pretty bad shape last night.”

The proxy froze. Jeff saw he had been right in the assumption the proxies hadn't told their boss the details of getting the girl to come with them. Slenderman's head whipped towards the masked proxy and he paled and winced. Jeff assumed some sort of mental scolding or onslaught followed to which he and the girl weren't privy. He leaned his head back and looked at her and found she was studying him with caution.

“So as much as I like calling you pet names, babe, I don't actually know your name,” he said through a mouth full of food again. He waited for her to swallow the oatmeal she put in her mouth.

“Rose,” she said. “The pet names really annoy me, by the way. You should really stop.”

“Nah, I don't think I will,” he stuck his tongue out. “I like being a nuisance. So, is Rose short for anything? Rosanne? Rosalynne?”

“Nothing you need to know,” she snapped back. “It's just Rose to you.”

Oh. Apparently the name was a sore spot. Jeff grinned.

“Oh come on, it can't be as bad as boring name like Jeffrey,” he said. “I've always hated my name.”

Rose ignored him and watched as the proxy left the room with his mask in hand, looking rather nauseous. Slenderman then turned his attention back to them.

“I apologize for my proxies behavior, Rose,” he said. “Obviously their judgment was flawed in their handling of you. Will you be alright?”

“I think so,” she said, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed beside Jeff's head. “I'll probably need help changing the bandages at some point today. Can we continue, even though Tim's left?”

Slenderman inclined his head slightly.

“Of course,” he replied. “As I doubt few others have past experiences with these particular three you've outlined, I will need to stay until we've tracked them. They will perhaps be our most important allies in this war, although they will be the toughest to bring to our side. Their age makes them disinclined to involve themselves in wars, as they pass in a blink of an eye to them. Jeffrey, on your feet. Since both of my proxies are now unable to work, you shall help Rose with the map today. Be grateful your punishment is not as severe as it could be for incapacitating them.”

Jeff reluctantly stood up, putting toast on the bedside table. Rose set her oatmeal on the bedside table as well and grabbed her laptop, which had been sitting out of sight beside her.

“We've only got one more point I believe relevant to the Leviathan today,” Rose said. “He—I mean she—seems to prefer to travel a path up and down the Pacific Ocean in contrast to her past location of the Mediterranean Sea. Most of her time when she isn't traveling is spent resting in the Antarctic Ocean near Cape Adare, where both the so-called Julia and Train sounds were recorded by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her path then swings up to the west coast of South America, avoiding Australia completely.

“We've already plotted the Slow Down at 15 degrees south, 115 west and the Upsweep at 54 degrees south, 140 degrees West. We only need the missing link between the two. Jeff, if you could put a white pin at 50 degrees south, 100 west. That's the location of the Bloop, recorded in 1997. Slenderman, are you sure these noises are her? Scientists think it's mostly ice sounds from Antarctica. Jeff, if you could then wrap white thread starting from the Cape Adare points up through the Pacific Ocean.”

Jeff stuck a white pin into the map, scowling. This wasn't what he had planned when he crashed this little meeting. He spun the spool of thread in one hand, tying one end around the first pin and wrapping a trail around them.

“I'm positive, Rose,” assured Slenderman. “It has been a very long time indeed, but I'm nearly positive the pattern of noises are her. Her groans have always been mistaken for more natural causes like earthquakes or ice. She is a harbinger of disaster, after all. Your help has been invaluable already, Rose, as I would have not checked oceanic societies to track her down.”

Rose didn't look convinced, but didn't question the tall man currently cramped into her small chair.

“Next, we've got the Ziz,” she said. We've got more than a little problem when it concerns him. There's not much definitive information on him at all.”

“He prefers Typhoeus now, I think,” Slenderman remarked. “He and his mate used to reside somewhere in the Middle East, much like the Behemoth. He had been been nursing his sore ego from his defeat the last I saw of him. I don't know if they are still there, however, so I apologize in the gap in my information.”

“No, no, I think I can fill in the gaps from there!” Rose exclaimed and typed onto her laptop, and then brought up a window on her laptop and flipped it around to show Jeff a map of what appeared to be Turkey. A small spot on the southern coast was marked.

“They used to abide in Arima, called both the couch of Typhoeus and the Corycian Cave,” she said. “Please put a green pin there. I know about both Typhoeus and his mate. Echidna, right?”

Slenderman nodded. Jeff did as she asked. She seemed to have lost all fear and anxiety in his presence now that she was working.

“Dude, Slenderman, how old are you to know all these guys?” Jeff asked as he put the pin up.

“I have been on this earth longer than I ever cared to be,” was the reply, “though I have not always looked like this. Things must come in a full circle before I can have peace. Unfortunately, they are in the same predicament I am. Their purpose should have ended long ago, but I believe they still exist today.”

The response was more somber than Jeff expected. He looked behind him to Rose, who had a look of surprise on her face. Slenderman ignored them both.

“Do you think they are still in Arima?” he asked Rose. She blinked, shook her head and looked back down at her laptop.

“No, actually,” she said. “They've long moved on, if they're still around. A town was built quite some time ago and probably forced them out of their home. However, I think I might know where they went. There's a Aztec god called Quetzalcoatl who shares many traits as Typhoeus, such as the feathered wings and general snake or dragon like appearance. However, he's seen in a more positive light than Typhoeus, being in almost messiah position within the myths of the region. Maybe they moved across the Atlantic to Central America after humans started to settle near them, like the Leviathan moved over the Pacific and Antarctic Ocean.”

“I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the gods and myths of the new world,” Slenderman admitted with a sigh. “Others would be more help than I.”

Rose wasn't dissuaded though. She flipped her laptop around again to show Slenderman a picture of what Jeff presumed to be the Quetzalcoatl. He leaned forward, still obviously uncomfortable in the too-small chair.

“I suppose it could be him,” he sighed, “Though more tails are needed. It's a better lead than anything my proxies or I have. Where are we looking at in Mexico?”

“Quetzalcoatl had two temples which had particular importance in his worship,” Rose said, scrolling down the entry she had on the serpent god. “One in Cholula—Jeff, stop laughing, I know it's a hot sauce—and one in Teotihuacan. There was also one further south, but we'll take that into account later. I don't think Typhoeus would be fond of living near Mexico City, so he and Echidna are probably hiding out somewhere around the volcano Popocatepetl. It's only a guess though. Other Mesoamerican cultures also worshiped similar deities, but I think it's best we start with the Aztecs and go from there.”

She flipped her laptop around once more to show Jeff a map of where the volcano was located.

“White pin this time, please, and connect the thread between the two,” she requested.

Jeff stretched the thread across the map, making sure there was no slack between the two pins and the thread lay flat.

“Are we done yet?” he complained. “This is boring as hell.”

“Almost,” Rose replied, not even really realizing Jeff was complaining. “We've got one more. Behemoth.”

“Last located east of the Garden of Eden,” came Slenderman's immediate reply. Both Jeff and Rose stared at him, and Rose's jaw dropped.

“The Garden of Eden was real?” she asked, obviously astounded. “Was it the same as the garden of Hesperides?”

Slenderman, for the first time in the while Jeff had known him, seemed to be having an oh shit moment. If Jeff had to guess, he probably hadn't meant to let that little bit of information slip. Finally, he answered.

“Yes, and somewhat yes,” he said, his voice softer than usual in their heads. “As you know, golden apples are facets of many cultures, associated with mythology. Eden was one of the places that had such a tree. It was located at where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers met. Of course, it's been long gone, even since the last time I saw the three of them. I believe the city that currently sits in its place is call Al Qurnah.”

Rose pulled a map and studied it, frowning.

“Unlike the other two, I don't really have much of a link for the Behemoth,” she said. “Even if we consider the fact the Behemoth may have a double in the legend of Kujata like the Leviathan had a double in Bahamut, we're still not left with much. I may need more time to research.”

“That is acceptable,” Slenderman said. “In the mean time, I think we can safely start talking to the children of Typhoeus and the Leviathan. Fortunately, I know where many of them are, even if you may not. I will send Timothy by with their exact locations later so you may track them on the map in case we need more information on them. It is best to talk with their children before approaching the Leviathan and Typhoeus themselves, even if their tempers are more even than that of the Behemoth. They care little for the affairs of mortals.”

Slenderman carefully stood up out of the chair, obviously more than a little sore from the cramped quarters he sat in.

“For now Jeffrey, remain with Rose,” he ordered. “She have more need of your assistance and as I originally planned to have Timothy stay with her today, you will fill his place.”

Rose's look of horror as Slenderman walked out of the room was worth an entire day of wasted time to Jeff.

“So, chickadee,” he said, kneeling by her bed with his elbows on top of the covers, “it's just you and me now.”

Rose paled under her numerous freckles, obviously not as thrilled as he was with the opportunity.

 


	9. Chapter 9

 Jeff leaned further across the bed and Rose flattened herself against the wall, her terror obvious on her freckled face. He noticed she no longer wore the long tee-shirt and sweats he had seen in her in the night before, but a tight fitting cardigan and jeans that made her look very small compared to him.

How could she be so small?

He followed her across the bed and ended up sitting cross legged across from her. Jeff drew the knife out of his pocket and Rose flinched.

“Turn around,” he ordered.

“Are you fucking nuts?” she snapped at him, pulling up her knees to put a line of defense in between her and Jeff. “Of course you are! You're Jeff the fucking killer! Hell no!”

“Just turn around, babe,” he said. “Trust me.”

She shook her head and tried to dart around him on the bed and make an escape through the door, but Jeff caught her with an arm around her waist. He flipped her around, forcing her to sit on her knees with her back to him, keeping a grip on an arm bent behind her back. Rose watched out of the corner of her eyes, terrified, as he lifted the knife to the back of her head...

...And carefully cut the bandage in between the pad of his thumb and the blade.

Jeff forced her to sit still as he inspected the wound on the back of her head, slightly amused at her terror. Her free hand resting on her leg shook slightly as he lifted her hair and gently touched the wound. It was now just an angry red gash, but it no longer bled. Still, Jeff thought it would probably be best if it were bandaged again.

Fucking incompetent proxies.

“Chill here for a minute,” he ordered, though he knew she was probably still too terrified to move. He jogged over to his room and found the roll of white bandages again with the antibiotic ointment.

When he entered Rose's room again, she hadn't moved, but the fire was back in her eyes, moxy back in full force. She glared at him over her shoulder.

“Seriously, what the fuck was that?” she demanded as he came near the bed. “You could have just told me you were going to check my injury!”

“Nah,” he drawled lazily and sat in behind her again. “That's too normal. Besides, you're hilarious when you're scared, darling.”

“Don't called me that!”

“What should I call you then?” He asked, digging at the insecurity he had discovered earlier. “Rosaleen? Rosette? Roisin? What exactly is your real name?”

Jeff felt her go still. He'd only been idly guessing at variations of Rose he'd heard. Having spent some time in Irish communities back on the east coast, he'd learned many of the names Rose came from. He picked out a few to throw at Rose, sensing from the freckles and the red-brown hair that she probably had some sort of Irish ancestry. Apparently he'd guessed it.

“Seems like I've guessed it, haven't I?” Jeff taunted, wrapping the bandage around her head. As soon as the bandage was secured, Rose whipped around and pushed at Jeff, nearly succeeding in knocking him off the bed. However, Jeff weighed much more than her, and easily trapped her in a cage made of his body and the wall.

“Why are you guarding this so closely?” He hissed at her and she flinched. “It's not like it matters.”

Her eyes met his and she glared.

“If it doesn't matter, then why are you doing this?” she hissed back, and her hands shot out to push against his chest. Jeff's right hand caught her small wrists, and he felt like a giant towering over her small frame. Even though she was at a clear disadvantage, Rose still glared up at him, defiant.

He opened his mouth to say something else, but someone knocked at the door. They exchanged a look and Jeff released her wrists, and climbed off the bed to answer the door. He noticed Rose rubbing her wrists as he reached for the door knob. Opening the door, he instantly recognized who it was.

“BEN, what the fuck do you want?” he asked.

However, BEN didn't shoot back a retort at him like usual. Instead, his face went whiter than it already was and he looked nervous.

“Jesus, Jeff, didn't think you'd be here,” he said. “Look, I think you should hole up in your room for a little bit.”

“What the hell, dude?” Jeff laughed. “You look like you've seen a ghost, no offense.”

BEN was silent and looked past him to Rose, and then back to Jeff.

“Seriously dude, go back to your room,” BEN said quietly. “I don't think you're going to take this well right now.”

“What?” Jeff demanded, starting to finally get unnerved from the solemnity of his friend's face. “Did someone die?”

He heard Rose shuffle things around behind him. Looking behind him, Jeff saw she held a box of pins with black balls at their tips.

“Yes,” BEN admitted. “Someone did. Jeff, you need to leave before this gets ugly.”

Jeff felt an ugly coil of anger start to tighten around his stomach.

“None of us are children anymore, BEN,” he said. “I can handle this news, whatever it is. Stop trying to send me off like a kid.”

BEN cleared his throat and walked past Jeff to Rose. He whispered something into her ear and her eyes widened. The coil tightened further.

“I actually have to agree with BEN, Jeff,” she said. “But stay if you want. I think I'm going to want to be around you even less after this.”

She carefully walked over to the map, still not entirely steady on her feet. The two men as she watched as she selected a black pin.

Jeff felt his heart sink into his stomach as she located his green pin and placed the black pin beside his own.

The coil tightened around both him stomach and lungs to the point where he couldn't breathe. He didn't want to believe what the pin meant. He'd seen her only yesterday, when she'd entered the mess hall and ran out just as fast.

Then he realized he hadn't seen a trace of Jane at the meeting in the library yesterday.

Jeff watched numbly as BEN directed Rose to put a red pin near Salt Lake City. There couldn't have been anyone else from his hometown. He would have known. But at the same time, he couldn't believe it was Jane. She was smarter, faster, stronger than to fall prey to Zalgo.

BEN started to reach towards him, probably to try to pull him out of the room before he destroyed anything. However, Rose caught his arm and shook her head. She rushed behind where he stood frozen to grab the dishes from that morning and her laptop bag, and grabbed BEN's arm to yank him after her as she headed for the door.

For once, he was grateful. Had BEN or Rose touched him, he probably would have lost control right then and there. As he stood there, Jeff wrestled with his thoughts, trying to overpower the voice in his head that screamed that Jane was 'our prey, only our prey, not his'. He managed to walk over to the map and sunk down to his knees in front of it.

The last aspect from his normal life before the voice was gone.

Jeff felt some part of it was his fault. If he hadn't pissed of whoever was upstairs, hadn't gone down to mess hall that day, he might not have scared her off so soon. She'd probably been afraid he'd come after her when she was weak and recovering from Zalgo's pursuit. She hadn't known he had the voice under control for weeks, the voice that screamed to kill her, the voice she didn't even known about.

He sat there for hours in front of that damned map, staring at that fucking black pin. As the sun set behind him, he sat there, trying to piece back together his twice shattered life. Contrary to popular belief, he was still human, despite his psychotic actions and past, despite his craze appearance. He held desperately onto that part of him as he stared at the black pin on the map, trying not to let go as he had in the past. Jeff didn't notice when Slenderman entered the room, but he jumped when the tall being put a hand on his shoulder. The static barely overwhelmed the tantrum going on in his head.

“There's nothing you could have done, I hope you know,” Slenderman said. “She was reckless and went out before she was fully recovered, despite knowing the sanctuary we offered from you in the estate.”

“I saw her in the mess hall yesterday,” Jeff croaked. “She ran.”

“I know,” Slenderman said. “It's still not your fault. It was her decision to run. The question now is what will you do? Will you go down her path and leave us for certain death? You cannot face Zalgo alone, Jeffrey. Even I cannot defeat him, only hold him at a stalemate. It is an unfortunate circumstance of war with our kind. We are invincible in every way except against ourselves.”

“I'm not a dumb bitch like she was,” Jeff snapped bitterly. “I'm not going to rush head first into anything. It's tempting, yeah, but I'm not that dumb.”

“Good,” Slenderman said. “It is right to mourn her, seeing as she was the last you had of your life before, but the time to do so is not now. Do you still need help containing the presence in your head?”

Jeff was startled out of his misery, the voice quieting down, only whispering 'heknowsheknowsheknows'. He hadn't told anyone other than BEN about the voice in his head and that had been when he had been very, very drunk.

“How did you know about that?” he demanded.

“It is as Rose theorizes,” Slenderman said, “although I intend to let her discover the depth of truth to her musings on her own. Your story is not your own, Jeffrey. The presence in your head is much older than yourself, a tale from long ago. She has only taken advantage of your rage.”

Slenderman stepped around Jeff's kneeling form to offer him a hand.

“If you are in control, then I suggest we leave and allow Rose back her room,” Slenderman said quietly. “She aims to sleep on the couch on the living area in order to leave you alone and we've not been able to convince her it is not a wise choice of action, much to Timothy's chagrin.”

Jeff laughed a little on the inside, feeling a little less hollow. It seemed as though Rose was stubborn in every aspect of her life, not just in her fights with him. Much like their first meeting, Jeff took the hand and unsteadily stood on his feet. The image of the black pin was still burned in his mind, but he pushed it to the back. He had bigger fish to worry about, mainly Zalgo himself.

Slenderman exited the room, but Jeff stayed a moment longer to collect himself. Before he could leave, however, the door opened a little bit and he could see Rose peeking in.

“You can come in now, you know,” he said. “It is your room, after all. I'm not going to bite your head off anymore, though you were maybe right to worry earlier.”

She opened the door just enough to let herself in and closed it softly behind her before making her way over to the bed. She only spared him a look before she grabbed her pajamas from underneath her pillows and headed to the bathroom to change. No condolences, no hovering, nothing.

Jeff liked that.

He might have actually tried to rip her head off had she done anything of the sort. However, she seemed content to leave him be, allowing him to guide the encounter as he pleased. He wondered she'd been through this before.

Rose left the bathroom, hair pulled back into a loose braid around the bandages. She walked across the room to grab the box of red pins, a spool of black thread, and a stack of papers she had come in with.. She began quietly working in front of him, first placing black pins, and then red pins in a radius around Salt Lake City. She measured the length between pins by pulling thread out from the spool, and then bit through the thread with her teeth when the thread was long enough, tying each end to a pin.

Jeff watched as she repeated those steps several times before he stepped beside her. She flinched slightly, but kept working. He noticed Rose had left Jane's pins alone. He grabbed the black thread and measured between Jane's black pin and the red one at the site of her death. He cut through the thread easily with his knife and tied the ends of the thread to each pin. Rose tied one more pin and stepped back to examine her work. Jeff's hands instinctively went into his hoodie pocket as he studied the black thread running between Jane's pins on the map.

“You're not as smothering as I'd thought you be,” he remarked, not looking at her. “No hysterics or panicking?”

“That's Tim's job, not mine,” she said back quietly. “I've had something similar happen. It's not a pleasant feeling, and I wished people had left me alone then.”

“Well, you're no fun.”

They stood together for a moment, studying the map together. Jeff was the first to move, walking towards the door, hands still in his hoodie pocket.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” he said. “Someone's got to help with those stupid pins, and I don't trust those god damn proxies.”

Rose looked mildly surprised, but he could see a small smile form on her lips.

“Yeah, see you then.”


	10. Chapter 10

 The next few days were buried in a flurry of activity. Rose found after her first day there she was able to work on her own in long stretches, although her head pounded constantly and spots occasionally danced across her vision. Despite this, she often sat in the chair at her desk, reading off names and places as well as dictating pin colors to Jeff.

The morning after Jane the Killer's death was marked on her map, Rose woke to knocking at her door. She opened the door while rubbing her eyes to Jeff, who stood there grinning with a plate of food in each hand. He walked right by her and placed the plates on the desk before turning around and putting his hands on his hips.

“So, chickadee,” Jeff said, “where do we start?”

It took Rose's sleepy mind longer than usual to figure out he wanted to work on the map with her. She'd set him to work on part of the stack of papers she received from Slenderman the night before while she retreated to the bathroom to take a shower, making it a point to lock the door behind her. No doubt Jeff could get in if he wanted to, but she had a feeling he considered her a very, very small fish at the moment compared to bigger fish such as Zalgo's minions. She also figured she wouldn't be able to shoo him off easily, so giving into his wanting to work would be easier.

Rose and Jeff worked hard on the wall map the next three days, Jeff marking it with pins and thread while Rose updated her directory of myths with the packets of information arriving frequently from both Slenderman and then the residents of the estate, sorting out potential allies and plotting out the territories of those already turned to Zalgo's cause. They only paused for meals and sleep, which seemed to please Slenderman.

Slowly, the estate began to empty out. However, with new arrivals everyday, many began to double up in rooms with those they forged loose alliances with and trusted not to tamper with their belongings while they were absent. Slenderman decided the need for more allies outweighed the danger of losing those in their little group, which BEN and Silver had started to call creepypastas after the internet's name for their stories. Slenderman expressed his chagrin when he first heard it, but he hadn't been able to remove it from the resident's vocabulary yet.

Unlike Zalgo, however, Slenderman offered the denizens of myth around the world the chance to say no and remain neutral, claiming there was no need for unnecessary deaths in a group already so few, especially when there was about to be many in the war to come. As well, most who had no desire to join Zalgo either, so it was wise to leave them be.

However, Rose knew Slenderman just didn't send out the 'creepypastas' (damn BEN and Silver for implanting the word into her vocabulary) for recruitment missions. There were too many orange pins (hostile markers) being replaced with black pins everyday for only Zalgo to kill them off.

Surprisingly, she and Jeff hadn't had another another close encounter after the one the night Jane died. Despite wanting to work on the map with her, their personal interactions ceased other than Jeff's insistence on pet names when he spoke to her. Rose wasn't stupid. He knew the only reason he wanted to work with her was to not only annoy Tim (who avoided her room besides delivering packets of information) but to expedite his revenge against Zalgo.

On the fourth morning after Jane's death, Rose woke up before Jeff's knock at the door. Seeing the faint grey light of dawn peaking through her curtains, she snapped the drapes aside and pulled up the blinds. She took a short shower before returning to her bed and pulling her knees up to her chest.

Across the green, she could see the new building which literally popped up over night. It was rectangular and almost made the estate a square by closing of the U-shape if not for about fifteen yards of distance between the U’s ends and the building. Rose didn't much mind losing her view of the usually foggy forest. Many times when she looked out on it, she saw shapes and figures which made her question her sanity more than she already did.

The new building mostly house those who came across oceans to reach this sanctuary. Out of sight, she knew there was a stable and kennels which mostly hosted the Wild Hunt's dogs and assorted mounts (some of which were goats bigger than Rose herself). The Wild hunt arrived from Britain on the second day, less than a day after Rose suggested the alliance to Slenderman, and were nothing like Rose expected. Slenderman sought them out personally, having proclaimed “anyone else would deeply offend them, although it has been a long time indeed since I have been across the Atlantic Ocean”. Rose presumed they'd still be around, finding it hard to believe such an old and prolific legend simply disappeared after centuries of propagation. She assumed Slenderman knew them from his much documented tenure in Germany. However, she wondered how much her input actually weighed on his decision to retrieve them: after all, he had known of their existence beforehand. Was such an omnipotent being doubting himself?

She and Jeff ran into them on a lunch run while they stood in the living room talking with Slenderman. The Wild Hunt comprised itself of mostly men, though Rose counted three women among its numbers. They were all very well dressed, young and mind numbingly beautiful. Rose could feel her ego curl up and die like a little bug as she studied them. One of them, a blonde man with shocking blue eyes, noticed her observing his group and flashed her a smirk full of pointed teeth, making her stomach twist painfully.

“What?” he said in a heavily accented voice, and the group's attention turned to her. “You honestly can't expect us all to look the part of Old Nick anymore. For Christ's sake, it's the twenty first century. Are you sure you need her help, old man? Look at her! She's gone dumb at the sight of us!”

Rose fled to the kitchen then with the group's laughter following her, her doubts fed by the hunters. She made it a point to not cross their path from then on.

Still lost in thought on her bed, Rose rested her chin on her knees as watched as Eyeless Jack sprinted across the green, weaving back and forth out of sight and behind buildings in an attempt to lose his daily pursuers. Following him were the half-decayed animals of the Wild Hunt, Smile, an ethereal dog which followed the Hunt from Britain named Black Shuck and the ever-strange creature called Seedeater.

Seedeater was an anomaly among Slenderman's group of creepypastas. The half-bird, half-something creature seemed more intelligent from his stories on the internet, but according to Jack, the creature had about the mental capability of a five year old. It relied mainly on the power of suggestion with its victims, its perceived complex sentences and manipulations formed from a combination of Seedeater's desires and the victims' minds, a form of hypnotism which left its victims completely obsessed with it. Otherwise, as Rose saw in the kitchen one day, its vocabulary seemed limited. Jack was patient with it, however, unaffected by its hypnotism and left with trying to reason with it through a few words.

“Want,” it stated the day she met it, tugging on Jack's hoodie sleeve. “Want food. Want now.”

Somehow, Eyeless Jack evolved into the caretaker of many of the less-human and nonhuman creatures on the estate. He didn't seem to mind, as he told Rose, “When you're a predator of humans, usually your friends are less human than you are.”

“I know Seedeater,” Jack told it, busy trying to feed the hounds along with Smile and Shuck without losing a hand. “But if I don't feed these guys first, they'll want you and tear you apart limb from limb.”

Seedeater paused, ragged, mask covered head turning to the side like a parrot, thinking.

“Don't want to be eaten,” it said. “Don't want Zalgo.”

“Neither do I, bud,” Jack replied. “Here's your main course. Try to eat it before the ice cream this time. It can't be natural, even for you, to eat that much ice cream.”

A half smile lighted on Rose's face as Seedeater's clawed hand shot out and nearly caught Jack. Of all things, the nightmarish creature had a palate for ice cream, though its food of choice was nearly always children.

There was, perhaps, another denizen in the house who leaned towards sweets, though Rose wasn't too inclined to confirm it. She didn't even know for sure if his story connected to the one in her mind, but if it did, much could be explained about his behaviors and actions.

Almost if summoned by her thoughts, a hand touched her shoulder and she flinched back. Jeff stood by the bed with a book in his hand.

“You're up early, babe,” he said. “But why didn't you answer the door?”

Rose shrugged and reach out for the book, but Jeff lifted it out of her reach with a smirk, backing a few steps away. She attempted to give chase and snatch the book out of his hands, but all she accomplished was getting closer to him than she would have liked. He tried to snag an arm around her waist to hold her in place but Rose danced out of the way, glaring at him for invading her space. The last thing she needed was for Jeff to suddenly get the bright idea in his head that he could sexually harass her more than he had in the encounter four days prior.

“Hand it over, Jeff,” she demanded, holding out her hand. “I know it's for me.”

Rose tried to make another grab for it, but Jeff finally succeeded in getting a grip on her waist before lifting her off the ground. Surprisingly, he did nothing more than plop her back on her bed. Rose's arms wrapped around herself, her personal space feeling violated.

“Jeff,” she growled, “give me the damn book.”

“Oh, getting angry are we?” he taunted as she tried to lunge off the bed for the book again. “Why don't you answer my question and we'll see if you get the book back? Why didn't you answer the door?”

The suggestion in his voice of 'maybe' getting the book back didn't sit well with her, but Rose had no choice but to play his game.

“I was lost in thought,” she said through clenched teeth, “and watching Jack run with Seedeater and the others.”

“Have a crush on our dashing eyeless fellow now, huh?” he teased, but Rose saw something in his eyes that suggested something she didn't like at all. It said he cared too much about what her answer was going to be. Part of her flared up in anger, not wanting that connection with him. It stomped all over the other quiet part of her, telling her the last time she'd listened to the quiet one is what got her hit over the head with God knew what.

“No,” she spat. “I don't. Give me the book.”

Jeff tossed the book to her and huffed.

“Oh, that's right, you like that dumb ass proxy,” he snapped, but Rose ignored him. The cover of the book was blank, but she could see words embossed in gold on the spine. She turned the book over in her hands to read the title.

Rose felt like someone had punched her in the stomach.

It had been obvious all along, but she chose to ignore the trends in her map. Legends and myths didn't usually have authors, especially recent ones, which is why she had chosen to ignore this particular set of stories. But considering most of the residents in the house were recently recorded myths, perhaps she shouldn't. She very much regretted her decision.

Rose felt like she was underwater. Sounds were muted and her vision swam while her chest constricted tightly. She'd had one of these before, right around the time of her last finals in college. It was a panic attack, and this time, it was because of a reason that none of other could top.

She felt something with no eyes watching her and looked up past Jeff, who was kneeling at her bed again trying to get her attention, to see Slenderman.

“Why are you having me do this?” she choked out. “You know all this better than I do. You're pushing me in the direction you want me to go. I'm worth nothing to you.”

Jeff paused in his pesterings and looked around to see the tall man, surprised by his presence. Rose didn't stop looking at him though.

“I know parts of your research better than you do, yes,” Slenderman said. “But I am only as omnipotent as far my network of proxies spreads. I have missed out much of history in many parts of the world.

“I am also not familiar with being prey,” he admitted. “Your instincts are far more valuable than mine in this case. I admit, I need someone whose view on this world is not entirely corrupted by mine to fight this war. Those that I consider potential allies are sometimes those you consider threats. I lack the instinct to know fear. You do not.

“However, your willing ignorance towards the matter of Zalgo's origin concerns me,” he continued. “Perhaps to consider this side of things, you need to be aware of what I think to hold to be true, though I am still not sure. Holding that tome in your hands, tell me: what is this war truly about?”

Tears poured down Rose's face and she tried to breathe normally, but failed.

“You're not fighting over prey, over humans,” she croaked. “You're fighting over your existence. Without humans, how will all of you continue to exist? Legends can't exist without people to tell them. This isn't the right apocalypse. Humans won't survive this to tell your tales. Earth might not even survive. It's why you seek the help of the Leviathan and her brothers. It isn't time for the world to end, but humans can do nothing to stop this force.”

As she burrowed her head in hands, the book fell to the floor, its pages spreading out and its spine to the sky, revealing its title to all.

“The Call of Cthulhu”.


	11. Chapter 11

 Not to anyone's surprise, Slenderman didn't bother to stick around once he lead Rose into believing what she refused to before. He left just as silently as he came, leaving Jeff kneeling on the floor staring after him and Rose curled up in a little ball on her bed, crying.

Rose heard the muted hush of pages against the floor as though underwater as Jeff picked the book up off the floor. She looked up, watching as he placed it on the desk before sitting next to her on the bed. She intended to move away from him, but she just couldn't quite make her body move through the panic attack.

“You need to calm down, Rose,” he said quietly, using her name for once instead of a stupid pet name. “You're probably going to hyperventilate and pass out on me. While I tend to have that effect on girls, it won't do either of us any good at this point if you faint.”

Jeff's poor attempt at a joke didn't even earn him a glare. Rose seemed to be in a world of her own, panicking at whatever stupid revelation Slenderman forced on her. Damn him, she was probably going to be useless for the rest of the day now and that wasn't going to get him any closer to fucking up Zalgo.

“Rose...” he sighed and pulled her into his arms. That seemed to earn some amount of reaction from her, as she pushed against him and tried to escape. As she quickly found, however, Jeff's arms were the same iron bars they were four days earlier.

“Let me go,” she choked out. “Damn it, Jeff, let me go right now!”

“Not until you calm down,” he said and glared at her. “You're freaking out and it's not going to help anyone. Now, take a few deep breaths.”

It took her a few tries to slow down her breath, but finally, she took three breaths, at least a little slower than her previous ones.

“Again.”

This time, Rose finally caught her breath and her breathing started to slow down for good. Jeff let go of her and she scooted away from him, leaning against her pillows. She offered him a withering look, which he ignored. He grabbed the book.

“Now explain this,” he demanded. “What the fuck has you so upset?”

Rose hopped off the bed, stumbled over to the map and stabbed at a spot in the southern Pacific Ocean, a spot the Leviathan's path swung around.

“Here,” she breathed out. “There's an underwater city right here. It's about forty-seven degrees south, one hundred twenty six degrees south. It's why she's avoiding that spot. It's why the Leviathan isn't taking the short cut she should.”

“What, like Atlantis?” he snorted. “That's fucking dumb. Why are you so worked up about that?”

“No, nothing like that!” she said. “I wish it were. Whatever lives there is connected to Zalgo, and he's trying to wake it up. In a sense it's the wrong apocalypse, or it is according to beings like the Leviathan and Slenderman. Even in their sense of the word, some humans will survive. Stories will survive meaning that fear, the last predator of mankind, should live on. If Zalgo has his way, it's very possible nothing will survive. At the very least, humans will be gone.”

“Oh,” he said. “I guess that is pretty bad. So you really believe your theory, huh?”

She nodded.

“Well, yeah,” she said. “I mean, there's just too much evidence otherwise. Old gods and fears evolve over time to survive and prey on humans. A good example is La Llorona. Her marker's orange in Miami right now, but most people would fight that pin and put it elsewhere. She's best known for hanging around Mexico and the southern United States, but before that, she wasn't evil.

“She was apart of the Aztec pantheon and would appear before times of disaster to weep for her so-called children,” Rose explained. “The popular belief is she still weeps for her children, but drowns kids unfortunate enough to run into her. Now, her legend has spread to the homeless children in Miami. She's now a mix between Bloody Mary and her original self, the antithesis to their Blue Lady.”

Jeff shook his head, obviously deciding it was all over his head.

“So what am I?” he asked and Rose gave him a look like a deer caught in headlights. “You know, don't you?”

“I, uh,” she stammered and Jeff hopped off the bed, stalking towards her. She backed away from him until her back hit the bathroom door. The look in his eyes suggested she was in for a world of hurt if she didn't answer soon. To reaffirm this belief, she watched as Jeff's hand disappeared into his hoodie pocket, where she knew a knife was. Her chest started to constrict again.

“I'll tell you,” she said quickly, “but you need to sit down and...and no knives, okay? You frighten me enough as it is.”

Surprisingly, Jeff turned around and plopped down in the chair at her desk.

“Well?” he asked, impatient. Rose cleared her throat and felt her cheeks turn a little pink.

“I guess I have to ask, and this might have nothing to do with it,” she said, “but did your family have any sort of Asian ancestry? Particularly Japanese?”

An almost nostalgic look came over Jeff's face.

“Yeah, my grandfather on my mother's side was Japanese,” he said, “though my grandmother was Chinese, strangely enough. Their families never got along because of that. My grandmother decided she wanted my mother to have a normal, American name. When my brother was born, though, my Mom decided to name him after her mother's old family name.”

Rose frowned.

“No family history of schizophrenia or anything like that?” she asked. “Anything abnormal growing up?”

“No and no,” he said. “Get to the point, chickadee.”

“Well,” she started, “There's an old legend in Japan concerning a women who was really, really similar to you. Like, scary similar. The original legend goes her mouth was cut open from cheek to cheek by her jealous husband and came back as an angry spirit. She goes around asking people if she's beautiful, killing them if they say no, giving them the same smile if they say yes. The tale reemerged in Japan in the 1970s and prevailed through to the early 2000s, which is when her story ended...and yours started...”

During the explanation, Rose's gaze had fallen to the floor. Now, she looked back up at Jeff. His eyes stared at nothing and his hands were grabbing at his head. She could see his body trembling slightly, not from fear, but like he was exerting a lot of effort to keep something under control.

“Rose,” he croaked. “Get out of here. Go get Slenderman.”

“Are you going to be okay?” she asked. “Jeff--”

His eyes flashes up at her.

“GO!” he shouted, and she shot out the door. She made it to the ground floor before she heard the first scream. As if summoned by it, Slenderman appeared in front of her when she entered the living area, closely followed by both proxies.

“Jeffrey finally asked, didn't he?” Slenderman asked. Rose dumbly nodded and he disappeared again as another scream rang through the air. Tim came up beside her, mask in place on his face.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Rose nodded again and he pulled her into a hug.

“I'm fine,” she said and wiggled out of his arms. “It's just...Jeff...”

“Don't worry about him,” Tim said in a stony voice. “Slenderman will handle him.”

Tim guided her over to the couch, where BEN and Jack sat with controllers in their laps, watching her. As soon as she was settled in between them, they resumed whatever they were playing, not saying a word. Nearby, Silver sat in an easy chair, limbs intact and obviously relaxed. Silver and BEN had just returned from a sweep of the web with a few new allies. Apparently the buddy system worked quite well when avoiding chain mail gone bad.

Rose half watched BEN and Jack's game. Whatever it was, it was violent, senseless, and took her mind off the haunted look she'd seen in Jeff's eyes, the look telling her she'd been right. Tim leaned over the back of the couch near her head and watched the game as well. She tried to ignore him and irritably swatted off his hand when it touched her shoulder. What was with the men in this house and invading her personal space?

She ignored his quiet apology and kept her eyes trained on the television. Rose had a guess as to how Tim regarded her and knew it wasn't anything near the friend level she'd like it to be. Like everyone else in this nuthouse, he wasn't exactly normal. The things he said and the way he acted scared the wits out of her, and she hadn't forgotten his vague threat from the first night. She'd rather not be on his bad side.

But Rose didn't want to be on the side he wanted her to be, either.

After twenty minutes, Jack was called upstairs with his medical kit by the hooded proxy. Silver took his place on the couch beside her. In a very strange way, she did feel protected. Like Jeff told her on the first night, this was probably the safest place on Earth to be during the upcoming war. The only things that could harm her were the estate being found and the residents losing it.

She'd seen how easily that could happen.

Finally, an hour later, Slenderman appeared back downstairs. Rose jumped off the couch and ran to him, with BEN saying something about wireless controllers behind her.

“He's calmed down somewhat,” he said, and Rose could hear his exhaustion in his voice. “Both fortunately and unfortunately, he's recognized what's in his own head. He'll probably be able to begin exercising proper control over it now, but it's going to be a very long battle for him. It's safe for you to return upstairs, but I advise you exercise caution when doing so.”

Rose ran up the stairs with Tim's protests following behind her. Blood splattered the walls and floors around her. It stained her hand when she finally reached her room and turned the door knob, opening the door slowly. She peeked in, and saw Jeff sitting on her bed, legs crossed at the ankles and covered in blood. He'd at least taken her grandmother's quilt and folded it up without staining it, but she had a feeling her sheets were probably a lost cause.

His hood covered his face, but he looked up when she came in. Light blue eyes met her own dark blue as she slowly approached the bed and climbed on it to sit next to him.

“I'm sorry,” she said quietly. Jeff chuckled bitterly.

“It's not your fault, you know,” he said back. “It was only a matter of time before I lost it again. In all fairness, I did kind of force you to tell me. You know, threatening you with a knife and all.”

“Still--” she started, but Jeff cut her off.

“Really, it's not your fault,” he insisted. “At least I didn't kill anybody...I think. It took a lot for Slenderman to get her under control though.”

He leaned his head back against the wall and sighed.

“I used to be normal, you know,” he said. “Yeah, I didn't have a great time at school and I got bullied a lot, but it was normal. I was a skinny little nerd with a crush on a girl way out of his league and a pretty good family.

“I guess that changed when the first fight happened. There was just this little whisper in the back of my head, encouraging me to make them feel the same pain I'd felt, that my brother had felt. It really only escalated from there. You know the rest of the story, I'm sure.

“I kind of woke up after it all happened and I just thought I was nuts. I mean, it was pretty reasonable to think that. I was hearing this stupid voice in my head, I'd carved a smile into my face and burned off my eyelids. I kept the smile as sort of a weird penance, though it's healed some. I kept losing my mind though, and I'd wake up with blood all around me. I gave up after a while though, because at least killing kept the voice quiet and satisfied in my head.

“I didn't really think anything about it until Slenderman mentioned something the other night,” he admitted. “I wish I could have manned up and told Jane before she died, even though I probably would have lost my balls for even trying to approach her.”

He chuckled again.

“Thank you, I guess,” he said. “Maybe I can get a handle on this now, chickadee. I'll never be normal, and I guess I have a role to fill, but maybe I can keep the part of myself that's me when I'm doing my job. I've worried I'd lose that part of myself for a long time now.”

Rose didn't really know what to say. She wrung her hands in her lap as she looked past Jeff to the window which over looked the green. The sun was slowly making its way towards the middle of the sky. What a long day it'd been already.

She felt Jeff grab her hands and hold them still.

“Stop,” he said quietly. “You don't have to be nervous, chickadee. Don't even think about it right now, because really there's nothing to think about. It's done. I'm pretty much pacified right now. All I can hear is the static that usually accompanies Slenderman. So just relax.”

Rose stopped wringing her hands and tried to stay still, but Jeff's hand stayed where it was on top of her own. For once, she let it stay, hoping to keep both of them calm.

They sat there in silence together, looking out over the green where giant black goats and horses from the Wild Hunt grazed and Seedeater stalked in the shadows. Smile and Shuck rolled around in the grass, biting each other and taking turns pinning each other before letting each other up to race around again.

The silence was interrupted by someone clearing their throat at the door. It was Tim, with his mask pulled up. His eyes gravitated down to where their hands rested together in Rose's lap and a flash of dark anger crossed his face before his expression cleared to a blank look.

“There's a visitor downstairs,” he said, “and Slenderman needs you to come down Rose. I assure you, it's not good news at all.”  


	12. Chapter 12

 The dark look which flashed across Tim's face hadn't escaped Jeff's notice either. His grip on Rose's hands tightened slightly, but not enough to hurt, as he leveled his own glare back at Tim, although the proxy's face had gone back into a neutral expression. Rose felt caught between the two, feeling like there was something she was missing.

“We'll be down in a minute,” Jeff told the proxy through clenched teeth.

Tim pulled the mask back down over his face.

“Only Rose needs to come,” he said, a warning clear in his voice.

Before it could escalate to violence between the two men, Rose decided to intervene.

“Knock it off, both of you,” she snapped. “I don't know and don't care why you two hate each other so much, but in case you've forgotten, there's a bigger conflict at hand that you should be devoting your attentions to. Tim, give us a minute and I'll be downstairs to deal with whatever Slenderman wants.”

Tim hesitated for a moment.

“Fine,” he grumbled, “but make it quick. It's got him riled up beyond all belief.”

Rose watched as the proxy stomped off down the hallway and sighed.

“Honestly, you two behave like children around each other,” she told Jeff. He shrugged and offered her a smirk. Rose started to wiggle off the bed, aiming to grab her laptop and head downstairs. However, she encountered a problem when Jeff didn't let go of her hands.

“Jeff...” she said lowly, threat clear in her voice. He gave her a smile (a sweeter one than she'd ever seen) before his thumb traveled across the palm of her top hand. He let go and then hopped off the bed beside her, wiggling out of his now-red hoodie. Rose sighed.

Men. Honestly.

She waited patiently by the door as Jeff threw the hoodie at the corner of the room where her makeshift hamper sat (not that she was going to do his laundry for him, she hoped he knew) and flattened out the black shirt he wore. She'd never seen him without the hoodie and was surprised by how skin and bones his appearance was without it.

“I'd ask if you ever ate, but I know the answer to that,” she remarked as they left her room. “I don't think there's ever any apples left in the estate for anyone else.”

Rose stepped around pools of blood and Jeff looked slightly guilty.

“I made a bigger mess than I thought I did,” he said, ignoring her jab. “Oh well.”

They descended the stairs and were met with the sight of two Slendermen in the living area, along with a group of creepypastas. Upon further observation, it was very apparent to Rose who the real one was, and the other made no real attempt to hide the fact he was a fake. The real Slenderman, as Tim had mentioned, seemed very riled up, perhaps even to the point of anger. Multitudes of black tentacles had sprouted out of his back, writhing and twitching as they crawled out into the air.

The other Slenderman seemed relaxed in his posture. His garishly polka dotted suit and hat harshly contrasted with the black suit of his counter part, and his face seemed more sunken in, with visible depressions for eye sockets where the real Slenderman's face was smooth. A black tear ripped across his face where his mouth was, and Rose could see rows upon rows of needle like teeth when the being laughed.

“Have another pet now, do you Mephistopheles?” he said, vocalizing out loud instead of through telepathy. “Oh, but this one has no collar. A stray perhaps? I might be willing to adopt her from you. After all, what's another mindless follower?”

The strange tall man made to step towards her and Rose shrunk away from him towards Jeff, who glared at the polka-dotted man.

“Hullo pet, what's your name?” he asked. “I'm Splen--.”

A dark tentacle shot out with a sound like a cracking whip from Slenderman's back, but one shot out in retaliation from the other being's back to block it from hitting its owner before withdrawing back in.

“Nyarlathotep,” Slenderman snarled and everyone in the room flinched, “what is your reason for intruding upon my territory unannounced? You are weighing heavily upon my patience.”

Rose's stomach twisted at the name. Only this morning had she convinced herself to believe that these nightmares were, too, real and now she faced one. Nyarlathotep threw his head back and laughed.

“Why else, Mephistopheles?” he said. “I am the harbinger of this world's fate and surely you've realized what is to come by now. If this small army you've gathered is any indication, I would say you have. Should I tell my brother of this gathering? I'm sure he'd be pleased to know of it.”

More tentacles shot out at Nyarlathotep and both of the present proxies approached Slenderman's side, weapons in their hands. The being was unfazed again, blocking off Slenderman's attacks with his own tentacles.

“This could be avoided if you just handed over the girl,” the being said. “Nothing shall happen to tip Zalgo off of this location if she leaves here today with me. You have known me since the beginning of time, Mephistopheles, and we are alike more than anything in this universe. We are both the favorite sons of our fathers. I will not lie to you. Give me the girl.”

“I know you Nyarlathotep,” Slenderman spat, “and you are naught but a liar with honeyed words.”

The mouth of the alien being curled into a wicked smile, and a tentacle shot out towards Rose and wrapped around her throat. The world around her started to spin and in the middle of the spiral of colors, she could see a small black tear. Beyond that, there were stars.

There was a crack of thunder and a flash of blinding light, and Rose dropped to the floor, her vision going black for what seemed to be only few moments as her skull impacted harshly with the floor. When her vision cleared and eyelids flickered open, her sight revealed a circle of heads above her, Slenderman's included. She noticed her head was propped up in Jeff's lap and someone was applying something very cold to her throat. She groaned in pain and she heard Jeff chuckle.

“Welcome back to the world of the living, chickadee,” he said. Rose tried to lift her head but Jeff pushed it back down onto his lap gently.

“Wait until I'm done at least or you're going to be a world of pain later,” she heard Jack say, and fingers skimmed across her throat with cold cream on them, leaving painful goosebumps in their wake. “He had quite the grip on your neck there. We're lucky he didn't decide to snap it when Slendy sent him packing to god knows where. Turn her head so I can see the back of it, Jeff. I want to see if her wound's reopened or not.”

Jeff's hands gently rocked her head to the side and she felt Jack's fingers probing at the back of her head and winced.

“I apologize for my inaction, Rose,” Slenderman said. “I had not thought him serious to make good on his promise of leaving with you, or I would have sent him back into the void earlier. He is a pest at best, but like Zalgo, I can not do much other than to banish him temporarily, but the few weeks he will be gone will give us time to act. Zalgo will not notice his brother missing. They have never been close to begin with.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw Tim reaching for her hand and shot him a glare. He ignored her and held her hand. Deciding she felt horrible enough already, she decided to let it slide for the moment.

“Was that really Nyarlathotep?” she asked, voice cracking from pain. “Why did he look so similar to you?”

“Unfortunately yes,” Slenderman answered. “His appearance is intended to annoy me, although it does do favors to his true appearance, as you have seen. He has done many deeds in my name in that guise, something which never ceases to anger me.”

“So what do we do now?” Rose inquired as she shook her hand away from Tim's grasp and offered him another glare, which Slenderman picked up on and magnified it with his own broadcasting disapproval, probably warning his proxy to behave. “When he gets back from his father's realm, he's going to be causing hell on Earth quite literally, and the estate won't be safe anymore.”

“Our plans will have to accelerate further,” he replied. “I have contacts on the coast and I suggest we pursue the Leviathan first and then talk to Typhoeus. Any leads on the Behemoth?”

Rose shook her head slightly and Jack grumbled at her to stay still.

“Perhaps the Leviathan will have an idea as to his current location,” Slenderman mused. “While they are most certainly not allies, it would have been prudent on her part to know his location. We shall investigate this further at another time. For now Jeffrey will help you return to your room and you ought to recover there for rest of the day. You may work, but I do not suggest it.”

“About that Slenderman...” Jeff said with a chuckle. “We're going to need new sheets in her room, seeing as her current ones are covered in blood. My bad.”

“I see,” Slenderman sighed. “There is also the matter of the hallway covered in it as well. Timothy, there should be spare sheets in the linen closet down the way from here. After you've delivered them, you and the rest who are gathered here are to start cleaning the hallway.”

A groan sounded through the room and several choice words were directed towards the ever grinning killer. Jeff gently turned Rose around so he could hook an arm under her knees and behind her back.

“I could probably walk, you know,” she said quietly, head spinning as Jeff picked her up.

“I'm not going to trust that after all the incidents your poor head as been through this week, darling,” he whispered back quietly to her as they headed for the stairs. “Besides, it really fucks up that proxy's day whenever I do something like this.”

Rose snorted softly.

“Stop antagonizing him,” she said sternly. “He's going to end up taking his anger out on one of us.”

Their conversation was interrupted when a blonde head popped out of the door which lead to the gym downstairs. It was the same blonde from the Wild Hunt days before, who Rose learned was called Tam Lin.

“What'd I miss, old boy?” he asked Slenderman. “Anything exciting?”

Slenderman sighed, exasperated, and rubbed where his temples would have been. Both Rose and Jeff snickered quietly as Jeff carefully climbed the stairs.

“Anyway, he's not going to hurt you at least,” Jeff continued. “Not when I'm around.”

Rose blinked, surprised.

“Thanks,” she said. “I guess.”

“You guess?” he parroted back to her. “That's a pretty steep offer from a serial killer, you know.”

They entered her room and Jeff carefully let her down into the office chair before turning to the bed.

“Yeah,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “I know.”

Jeff looked back over his shoulder and gave her a small smile before tossing the quilt over to her. He started to peel the sheets off the bed. A knock rang out and Tim entered the room with sheets in hand.

“Jesus, did you have to get artistic out there, asshole?” he asked Jeff. “It's going to take forever to clean up.”

Jeff gave him a feral smile.

“Well, someone has to make up for the stupid, uncultured fucks around here,” he countered back.

“Whatever,” Tim snapped and turned to the desk to put the sheets on top of it. “Rose, can I talk to you for a moment?”

Rose froze, not expecting to get drawn into this. The look in his blue eyes was hopeful and Rose knew exactly what he wanted to talk about.

“Um, I'd actually like to just lay down and get to work,” she told him quietly. “Maybe later.”

“Well, freak show could just step out for a moment,” he said. “You could get back to work right after that.”

“Um...” Rose began, but Jeff cut her off.

“Hey, fuckface, it's pretty obvious she doesn't want to talk to you right now,” he growled. “If you would use your fucking small brain for once, you'd remember she just almost had her neck snapped and her head was injured again. Besides, aren't you supposed to be appreciating my art right now?”

“Stay out of this!” Tim warned.

“Tim, stop it,” Rose pleaded weakly, and both men looked at her. “Seriously, I'm not feeling good right now. I just want to lay down and rest for a little bit. Jeff's right, Slenderman is expecting you to work with others on the mess in the hallway, so just leave...please.”

Tim sighed and his expression softened a little.

“Fine,” he said to her. “I'll be back later.”

He turned around and left. Rose cradled her head in her hands and sighed shakily. Jeff lightly touched her shoulder with one hand as he reached around her to grab the sheets Tim left.

“I'm not bugging you too much, am I?” he asked.

“No, you're fine,” she replied and tugged at her braided hair, pulling out the elastic and undoing her hair so it hung loose around her face. “You're not incessantly harassing me with something I don't want. He's taken advantage of my need for a friend in nuthouse and it's driving me nuts.”

Jeff made her bed quietly and Rose hugged her grandmother's quilt, burying her face in it. She looked up when she heard Jeff speak.

“Sorry, can you repeat that?”

“I'm not a friend then?” he repeated and looked over to her.

“It's actually funny,” she told him as he lifted her up out of the chair. “Everyone else here is more of a friend at the moment than he is. Even Seedeater is more stable and predictable than he is. He just...scares me. He swings back and forth between these really dark moods and then these apologetic moods. At least you're not too subtle about how you're feeling. I can always tell when you're wanting to murder something and when you're just joking.”

Jeff gently placed her on the bed and Rose collapsed back against the pillows. He sat beside her and spread the quilt out over her.

“So yeah, you're a friend,” Rose admitted. “This entire place is really fucked up, this entire situation is just fucked up, but you're the closest thing to a friend I have here.”

She drew up her legs so he could scoot back and lean against the wall.

“I know where he's coming from,” Jeff said. “I think you're blind not to see it around the estate too. The fact is we crave normalcy, and you're the closest things to it. It doesn't hurt that you're easy on the eyes too.”

He winked at her and Rose felt her face burn red. She tried to push him away with her feet but he just braced himself against her efforts. She settled for hiding underneath the quilt but he pulled it back away from her face and crawled over her so he was face to face with her, caging her in once again with his limbs. He supported himself with his elbows on either side of her head.

“The thing is,” he whispered, “the rest of us have a little more restraint and subtlety than to harass you to the end of your wits, chickadee. Though I'll admit...”

He rubbed his nose against hers and Rose felt as though her heart stopped.

“...it's a lot harder to do than it looks.”


	13. Chapter 13

 Jeff drew back reluctantly from Rose, trying to keep to his word and the boundaries he set for himself when it came to her. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Running his hand through his thick, black hair, Jeff felt himself grow frustrated at his actions. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose sit up, face still extremely red. Her arms wrapped around her knees and she hid her face from Jeff's sight. He had learned it was never a good sign when she did that and decided to cut his losses and try to salvage their loose friendship by leaving her be for the moment.

Jeff stretched his hands above his head and yawned, trying to seem as relaxed and peaceful as possible. Maybe if this seemed like no big deal, Rose would take this as him messing with her again instead of realizing it for what it actually was.

Not that he really knew what it was yet either.

“Anyway, you need to sleep, babe,” he told her, purposely adding the lazy drawl to his voice. “From what Slenderman said earlier, things are really going to pick up now, so you should rest while you can. I'll be back later to check on you, but I think there's some apples in the mess hall right now with my name on them.”

He saw Rose nod into her legs, acknowledging she'd heard what he said without even a giggle at what he said about the apples. Jeff sighed and left before she could figure out he was just as flustered as she was. Jeff took the other staircase down to the main floor to avoid the proxy he knew was cleaning up the mess he left behind earlier. Damn that asshole Jeff might have been able to keep a lid on whatever he was starting to feel towards Rose if the proxy hadn't gone about his own romantic pursuits with the subtlety and grace of an elephant.

Now, it seemed as though both he and Rose were aware that they didn't see their friendship the same way. Truthfully, Jeff preferred not to get attached to anyone else. If he didn't kill them himself, someone eventually would. He'd been forced to revisit that particular sentiment when Jane died earlier in the week. She'd been the only real attachment he'd held onto although she hated him with fire of a thousand suns. Some part of him probably still held onto the crush he had before everything went to hell. Even though he was friendly with BEN and Jack, they weren't really friends, or at least Jeff didn't consider them as such. Who knew what they though of him.

As Jeff walked into the mess hall, he realized there must be some masochistic (or stupid) part of him to allow the attachment to form with Rose, the person who was most likely out of anyone he knew right now to die in the this god damn war. Right after Jane's death, he'd tried to emotionally distance himself from Rose, recognizing that he was starting to get attached to her. He hadn't been able to keep it up for long, as today had shown. Jeff knew he wasn't in love with Rose. He hadn't known her long enough to be in love with her. However, he felt too much fondness towards her for it to still be the friendship they'd started out with.

Part of Jeff wanted to hate Rose. She represented what he and Jane would have been like had the crazy Japanese myth not decided he'd be an excellent new host. While she could get pretty pissed at his teasing, Rose didn't have the kind of hate and malice in her heart that Jeff did. Although she wasn't crazy about him, she looked past his appearance and teasing to try to reach out to him in her own way. Jeff's mouth twisted into a bitter smirk. In a lot of ways, he was living his favorite myth from his childhood, the story of Hades and Persephone.

Liu had made fun of him when he admitted to liking the tale, proclaiming it was a stupid story about a creepy guy chasing a woman way out of his league and making everyone else miserable. Jeff hadn't said anything back to his brother. They rarely disagreed, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to change Liu's mind. Even then, he related with lonely Hades, alternatively despising and admiring what he could not have in the lives of his more normal and popular classmates.

Jeff dragged his first Persephone with him into this psychotic underworld, but Jane changed from the girl he knew, presumably as she was permanently stuck living in hell. This time, Jeff didn't have to offer a hellish pomegranate in the form of revenge. This Persephone was already stuck in hell of her own accord. Rose hadn't gone half mad like Jane had in this hell, but had retained her sense of self much like the original Persephone had. Much like the original myth, Jeff was certain Rose wasn't half as fond of him as he was of her, although he was pretty sure she at least didn't hate him like Persephone hated Hades. He was hoping he hadn't lost his chance with his earlier stupidity.

Jeff grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and and would have shoved the remaining two into his hoodie pocket had he been wearing it. Just as he was about to take a bite out of the apple, Slenderman materialized out of nowhere beside him, causing Jeff to jump slightly.

“Jesus, Slenderman, can't you use doors like everyone else?” Jeff complained. “Everyone's jumpy around here as it is and you're not helping.”

“Teleporting to your location was more efficient than walking,” Slenderman said. “I would like to speak with you in the library regarding the advancement of the plans concerning the Leviathan and Typhoeus.”

Jeff blinked and Slenderman was gone. He sighed and grabbed the other apples out of the bowl before leaving the mess hall. It seemed as though he would have to put the mess with Rose on hold until later. He lazily juggled the apples as he wandered down the hallway towards the library. When he opened the heavy wooden door, he was met with the sight of Slenderman and his very nervous hooded proxy, who flinched when Jeff glanced over to him.

“Why couldn't we have just talked in the mess hall?” Jeff asked as he closed the door behind him.

“Unfortunately, it has come to my attention one of my proxies recently returned to an undesirable habit,” Slenderman explained. “As a result, he is not going to be privy to this discussion as we ascertain his placement in the upcoming days. Timothy is out and about cleaning the hallway currently and there is less of a chance of being found here.”

“What, the problem isn't this freak?” Jeff asked and the hooded proxy flinched again.

“Look man, I'm actually trying to get clean right now,” he weakly protested. Jeff ignored him but Slenderman looked over to his proxy and slightly inclined his head. The proxy relaxed slightly.

“I allow my proxies somewhat of a coping period as they come into the understanding of the terms of their new employment,” Slenderman continued. “Many struggle as I let the leash have slack and many use substances to deal with their emotions. However, it is expected they wean themselves of their detrimental dependency. Brian is currently in this stage.”

The proxy nodded in agreement.

“Like I've said, I'm trying,” the proxy said. “But Tim...it looks like he's got new track marks on his arms from using. Besides, his behavior has been really weird and erratic lately, like he's been crazy obsessive towards that girl and angry at the slightest thing.”

“Since Brian has brought this situation to my attention, I believe a change in plans is prudent,” Slenderman said. “Originally, you, Rose and my proxies were to meet with contacts on the coast and pursue the Leviathan while I accompanied the Wild Hunt in their pursuit of some of Typhoeus' children. However, given the information which has recently come to light and your past attitude concerning my proxies, I believe it wise to accompany you and Rose while Tim and Brian travel with the Wild Hunt. I will inform Timothy of this development and take steps to curtail this behavior. I believe it to be a hazard towards Rose, and thus towards our goals.

“In the mean while, Jeffrey, you are not to exasperate the situation further by antagonizing Timothy,” Slenderman scolded. “Your harassment may encourage Timothy to act out and he may choose to prey on a weak target. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Jeff grumbled. “So what am I supposed to do while you guys get your shit together? And how long am I supposed to wait?”

“We'll be leaving in two days,” Slenderman said. “Your only job is to be at Rose's side while I attempt to gain control over Timothy again.”

“Great,” Jeff sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Just great.”

“Is there something wrong Jeffrey?” the tall man quizzed.

“No, nothing,” Jeff said and pushed open the door. “See you guys later, I guess.”

To his surprise, the proxy followed him out of the library.

“What's your fucking deal, dude?” Jeff snarled at him after the door closed. “Do you have a death wish or something? It's pretty god damn obvious I'm in a piss poor mood.”

The proxy shook and held up his hands in surrender.

“Please don't hurt me,” he pleaded. “I just have a really bad feeling that something's about to go down.”

“You're right,” Jeff snapped. “Your face is going to meet the floor again if you don't leave me alone, so get lost.”

The proxy stepped in front of Jeff as he attempted to walk away and he almost lost it.

“Look dude,” the proxy said, “I really, really don't like you so I wouldn't do this unless I thought something was going down. It's one of my weird things I get from Slenderman. Just let me follow you upstairs and I'll disappear, I swear.”

“Fine,” Jeff growled. “Your funeral.”

The two men went upstairs and were met with a few creepypastas scrubbing the walls and floors, trying to get the blood out before it stained into the wood. However, the proxy stiffened beside him and Jeff quickly noticed why. There was one person notably missing from the clean up crew. The voice whispered quietly in his head. Shut up, he said, not right now. It didn't listen and went on whispering.

“BEN,” Jeff called over to the blonde man. “Where's the masked freak? Wasn't he supposed to be here cleaning with you guys?”

“I hope you don't mean me,” Jack called back to him and laughed, but quickly stopped when he saw the look on Jeff's face.

“He was here,” BEN said, “but he took off a while ago. Said he was going to go check on something. Why? What's wrong? You look pissed.”

Instead of answering, both he and the proxy took off towards Rose's room. Okay, so maybe the proxy had been right. Until it happened again though, he was still a useless freak in Jeff's eyes. When they reached Rose's door, Jeff quickly discovered the door was locked. Jack, BEN and the other creepypastas had followed them down the hallway.

“Rose?” he called out, but there was no answer. He looked over to Jack, who was the biggest man among them. Jack seemed to realize what he was thinking and drew back. He charged towards the door and hit near the lock with his shoulder. The door swung open and Jack joked, “I've done that way too many times.” All joking quickly died, though.

The masked proxy looked back over his shoulder from where he held Rose up against the wall by her throat. Her nose and left cheek were smeared with blood and one of her eyes looked swollen. Hot anger clawed inside Jeff's chest as Rose looked at him and mouthed something, and the apples he still carried dropped from his hands as he took a step forward into the room. The voice roared in his ears. Kill him, it said. Now.

“Help.”

Jeff didn't remember flying across the room and tackling the proxy to the floor. However, the next thing he knew, BEN and Jack were trying to pull him off of the proxy. The proxy's mask was shattered in half and he bled out of his nose and mouth. Jeff allowed himself to be pulled back after punching him once more, square in the nose. Fucker.

“What the fuck is with you proxies?” he shouted. “I swear to god, you assholes seem to want to fuck up everything.”

The masked proxy didn't respond. He propped himself up on his elbows and wiped at the blood coming out of his nose and mouth with his jacket sleeve. The hooded proxy roughly hauled the masked one to his feet and dragged him out of the room with the shards of the mask shoved into his hoodie pocket. The voice quieted in Jeff's ears, sated by the violence.

Jeff flopped onto his back and groaned before looking over to where the proxy dropped Rose when he was tackled. Rose's eyes were trained on the floor and he could see tracks of tears running down her face. Seeing as Jeff had come back to his senses, Jack left the room for his med kit, which had seen far more use than usual that day. The others left the room as well, except for BEN.

“Jesus, dude, anymore and you might have killed him,” BEN said and closed the door. “Thank god you didn't have your knife on your or Slenderman would have skinned you alive for fucking up one of his proxies.

“Your point?” Jeff growled and moved over to sit by Rose. She didn't look up. “He would have deserved it.”

Rose didn't respond at first to Jeff sitting by her at first, but then she scooted a little closer to Jeff. At any other time, he would have been pleased, but now, he only felt sick when he looked at Rose's bloody face. He sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. All he could do now was wait for Jack to get back.


	14. Chapter 14

 Jack returned a few minutes later with a box of tissues in one hand and his large medical kit in the other. He instructed Jeff to lift Rose off the floor and onto the bed, where the med kit sat open at the end. For his efforts, Jeff had the box of tissues shoved into his hands.

“Go take care of your nose and change your shirt,” Jack ordered before turning his attention fully to Rose. BEN shoved him out of the room and they went next door to Jeff's own room. Jeff went to the bathroom to wash his face while BEN pestered him from the bed. At sometime during the fight, the proxy had managed to get a swing or two in, hitting Jeff's already mangled nose. He touched it tenderly, trying to figure out whether or not it was broken.

Impudent thing, the voice said, You should have killed him.

And you should just shut up you old crone, he shot back at the voice in his head, but that's not going to happen is it?

It huffed in annoyance before going back to muttering to itself. After being recognized, the voice had more of a personality now than just being a mindless urge. Jeff couldn't decide whether or not it was more annoying.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Jack was right in someways: his nose had recovered somewhat from what it used to look like, though it would never be the same from the multiple breaks and burns. This time, Jeff was lucky and his nose was not broken. He washed the blood off his scars and lips before stuffing his nose with tissue and returning to the room to look around for a shirt and hoodie that weren't totally covered in blood. He tuned back into what BEN was saying after he pulled the hoodie over his head and put a knife in its pocket.

“..but seriously dude, never seen you attack someone like that,” BEN ranted at him. “Usually you have a little more...finesse...but this time you were just beating the shit out of him.”

Jeff shrugged noncommittally and headed for the door, waiting impatiently as BEN hopped off the bed and wandered out the door.

“But anyway, I'll talk to you later,” he said. “You should probably go check on Rose. She's had a hell of a day.”

“Yeah, talk to you later man,” Jeff replied and waited until BEN turned the corner before opening the door to Rose's room. Both Rose and Jack looked up when he entered the room. It looked as though Jack hadn't done much other than take the supplies he needed out of the med kit and put them on the table beside the bed. Rose's gaze returned to the floor again immediately, but Jack invited Jeff to sit beside her on the bed. Jeff watched as the eyeless man carefully reached up to touch Rose's nose, checking for the same thing Jeff had earlier. Rose kept flinching back, but Jack was persistent in his exam. He talked while he cleaned her up.

“You know, I didn't start out like this,” he said as he started to clean the blood off her face with alcohol. She flinched when it touched the abrasions from the proxy's fist on her nose. “I was on my way to med school and all that rot. Guess I got a little too caught up in the surgery part of it, ha ha. Got invited to do some work back in my grandparent's home country, China, and never returned to school. It's the mecca for human organ trade, you know.”

Rose didn't respond but Jeff could tell she was hanging on to every word Jack said like a life line. Occasionally a tear ran down her face, but Jack would catch it as he cleaned her face. Now that he wasn't seeing red, Jeff could also see Rose's upper lip was swollen and bleeding and there were small cuts on her face, maybe from some sort of ring the proxy wore. His hands clenched in sheets as he tried to keep his rage under control. As much as he wanted to hunt down the masked proxy right now and ensure his very, very painful death, Jeff knew somewhere in his mind it wasn't the greatest idea.

“I'm not sure when I developed a taste for the subjects I stole from,” Jack continued, “or when the black sludge ate out my eyes like acid, but I slowly broke away from those I worked with to pursue my own interests. Not before robbing them blind, however. I've heard about your theory, how most of us are connected to legends and myths and whatever. I don't really think I'm human anymore, and I think that's because of the stuff people whispered about us after dark in Beijing. I turned into that monster, I think, the face of the human organ trade.”

The cannibal lifted up her chin and moved it from side to side, observing the movement in her neck.

“Does it hurt to swallow?” he asked and Rose nodded. “Are you dizzy? Having trouble hearing?”

Again, Rose nodded and Jack sighed.

“It's looking like you had some blood flow cut off to your brain, but nothing too serious,” he said. “I'm going to keep an eye on your symptoms though.”

He took out the cream from earlier and put a bit of it on Rose's throat. She shivered.

“In a lot of ways, I became a Chinese boogeyman, I think,” he mused. “I was the story a lot of children were afraid of, being sold because their parents were so poor or kidnapped while they made their way to school. Every bit of fear fed into what I am now. A lot of guys here bleed black like I do, so I think it's just a part of becoming a monster.”

Jack placed a few plasters over the cuts on Rose's face and handed Jeff two ice packs wrapped in soft cloth.

“Keep those on her eye and lip,” he instructed. “Come find me if anything changes. I don't know how long he had his hands on his throat or how much pressure he was applying, so her symptoms may get worse.”

Jack put everything back into his med kit and zipped it back up. Before he could leave, however, a horn shattered the silence of the estate. It was soon joined by eerie howls that shook the windows. Rose's hands clapped over her ears and she winced at the noise. Jack, Jeff and Rose looked out the window the see the Wild Hunt assembling on the green.

The hunters had traded their usual trim appearance for wild masks with antlers and fangs and odd leather clothes that seemed more at home in the past. Their eyes burned with green fire as they circled the green on their mounts, which tossed their heads and rolled their eyes. Jeff noticed two honorary members of the hunt sitting on their own horses at the corner of the green, watching the entire debacle. It seemed as though Slenderman was eager to rid the estate of his proxies and their troubles. One figure, who he figured was the pompous asshole named Tam Lin by his golden hair, held the leads to the writhing hounds that bit and snarled at each other.

The horn sounded again and the hounds were let go, sprinting across the green before disappearing in an eerie flash of green light. The huntsmen and proxies soon followed them, huntsmen whooping wildly, as they too disappeared in a flash of light. Jack snorted after all of the riders disappeared.

“That was entirely over done, and they know it,” he said to Jeff and Rose, who still stared out the window. “There was no need for all those theatrics, but I'm glad their animals are gone. I was afraid those goats were going to eat me soon because they were so restless.”

He waved to Jeff and Rose and walked out the door, quietly shutting it behind him. They sat in silence for a little while. Rose's gaze returned to the floor, steadily boring a hole into the floorboards. Jeff noticed she was shivering, so he pulled off his hoodie and tugged it down over her head. Rose flailed for a little bit inside it before her head poked out and her arms found the sleeves. It looked as though she were wearing a bag. Jeff laughed quietly and pulled the hood up over her head.

“It's way too big for you,” he told her. “Or maybe you're just freakishly small.”

Rose's eyes lifted and met his. There wasn't any of the fire he was used to in them, only fear and pain. He laced his fingers in with hers and squeezed her hand lightly.

“I'm sorry I wasn't here to stop him,” he said quietly. “I should have known he would have come back right after I left.”

Rose shook her head and her eyes returned to the floor, but she made no attempt to remove her hand from his.

“It's my fault,” she whispered hoarsely. “I should have known, too. I shouldn't have gone to sleep so quickly. I should have locked my door.”

“Chickadee, it's not your fault,” Jeff insisted. “You shouldn't have to lock your door here. You're more valuable than anything else on this earth right now to everyone here. You shouldn't have to be afraid of being hurt here, even if this is a nut house. It's happened a lot more recently than any of us would like, though.”

A corner of her mouth curled into a half smile.

“It has happened a lot,” she admitted. “I'm not sure how much more my poor body can take, though.”

Jeff handed her an ice pack and she put it over her eye, wincing at the cold. Jeff's hand left hers and he instead pulled her into his lap and scooted across the bed to lean against the headboard. His chin rested on the back of her head as she sat between his legs.

“I'm sorry,” he said again. He felt Rose sigh and watched as she tried to relax where she was but failed. He pulled her back against his chest and her lone blue eye looked up at him as she tilted her head back. It looked as though she was going to tolerate this for now, but she definitely didn't seem comfortable being there.

“What for this time?” she asked.

“Everything I guess,” he replied. “Being a dick, fucking with the proxies, being a dick. Not being here. Pushing you past where you're obviously comfortable.”

Rose wiggled again and he scooted out from underneath her, moving her to the inside of the bed. She sighed.

“Being a dick is part of who you are,” she whispered. “I just kind of have to deal with that. You're going to be forever teasing me and calling me dumb pet names. I think he would have...done that anyway, even if you hadn't bugged him like you did.”

The fear was back in her eyes.

“But I guess I can say you at least respect my boundaries when I put my foot down,” she continued. “I can always get away. You're not backing me up against the wall and hitting me when I give you an answer you don't like.”

Rose tugged the hood down over her face, hiding all of except for her swollen lips and a bruise which started to grow under her freckles. She sat up and drew her knees up to her chest under the hoodie with only her sock covered feet sticking out. Jeff rolled over on his side to watch her.

“You scare me, but not as bad as he does,” she said. “If you'll hurt me, I'll know it's not personal, not like what he did to me. It'll be apart of your job. Maybe I don't hate you as much as I should. Maybe I don't mind you as much as I should. Maybe you're more human than I thought you were. I'm not sure I like that though, because that opens up other doors to this entire thing that I'm not comfortable with.”

She'd left the discussion open instead of closing it down like he'd thought she would. Like he hoped she would. Something in his chest twisted painfully.

“So set the boundaries as you figure out what you are comfortable with,” he told her quietly. “If I let myself think like the hormonal guy I am without the serial killer part of me, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fond of you. If I think rationally though, I'll admit I don't really like this either. Attachments mean shitty things in the business I'm in. But I can't really win in this situation, so I'm just going to let this happen as you want it to, or don't want it to.”

The corners of her lips turned down. Jeff took it as his sign to leave, but as he tried to get up, her hand shot out and caught his arm. She looked up at him and he could see her eyes again.

“Stay,” she whispered. “Please. It's stupid, but I'm still scared. I should have been scared before this, I've got to be the dumbest girl on the planet, seriously. I don't know why Slenderman values me for me sense of fear because obviously it's not working well. I should be afraid all the time, I'm in a house full of the worst killers on the planet and I'm not scared, ha ha ha ha ha...”

Her rambling turned into hysterical laughter and Jeff sat back down on the bed and drew her into a hug. Her laughter then turned into hysterical sobs on his shoulder as she threw her arms around his middle and the icepack fell to the bed. Jeff held her with his chin on top of her head, feeling as though he was holding a very small, fragile bird whose wings would break if he held her too tight.

After a while, the sobs quieted and he looked down to find Rose had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He let a small smile light on his face as he picked her up and pulled back the covers, intending to tuck her in and leaving her for the night. However, her hands were gripped tightly in her shirt and he was afraid of hurting her when he pried them off. He resigned himself to laying beside her in bed until her grip finally relaxed and she turned over. He turned off the light and locked the door as he left, and then slid down to the floor and buried his face in his hands.

Of all the things in he'd done in his life, he was afraid he was going to regret the decision to keep by Rose's side the most.


	15. Chapter 15

 Jeff fucking hated the ocean almost as much as he hated fire.

When he was little, his family took a vacation to the ocean somewhere in southern Washington. When he and his brother were messing around in the water, Liu jokingly held him underneath the water for too long, forgetting his brother was not only smaller than him and couldn't fight back, but couldn't swim very well. Even now, the feeling of the remaining air escaping from his burning lungs and water rushing in to replace it haunted his dreams.

Jeff stared out across the foggy water, eyes straining to see where it stopped, which was just past an island he was sure was chock full of opinionated sea lions. Yesterday had gone by quickly. Other than packing, Rose spent most of the day either curled up in a nest of blankets researching on her laptop or sleeping, leaving Jeff bored. When he wasn't pinning locations onto the map, he mostly sat by the bed and quietly talked with her, or rather, at her. Rose hadn't been much of a chatterbox to begin with, but with her throat feeling shitty, she talked even less.

When she fell asleep, he finally reached the point of boredom to grab “The Call of Cthulhu” off of her bedside and began to read it. He discovered quickly it was actually a collection of short stories, and also discovered the reason for Rose's terror concerning the entities in the book.

Jack stopped by twice that day to check on her and once in the morning, clearing her for travel with a warning to be careful. Luckily, Rose came out of the proxy's attack with the best case scenario, with only pain and bruises to her name instead of brain damage like Jack originally feared. With Rose's travel clearance, Slenderman met them out on the green and put a hand on their shoulders before taking a step forward, tearing through space and transporting them into a forest of giant trees. Jeff, who carried both he and Rose's backpacks, almost dropped them when a wave of nausea ripped through his body. Rose, however, fell to her knees and slapped a hand to her mouth, groaning in pain. Slenderman apologized and waited for them to recover before he spoke.

“It seems our contacts have not yet arrived,” he said, looking out to a small town with wooden docks. “I have other business to pursue here. After you have recovered, you may do as you wish until they arrive. I will find you when that time comes.”

Slenderman blinked out of existence and Jeff was left alone with Rose among the giant trees. He sat down beside her and waited for her shaking to stop. He looked around and realized they were in a forest of redwoods, which meant they were probably somewhere in northern California. Slenderman hadn't exactly mentioned where they were going, only that they were going to a coast. Rose's shaking abated and he offered her a hand. She took it and he gently helped her to her feet.

“I think we're near Crescent City, California,” she told him hoarsely. “There's something that makes its home here, but I can't remember what it was. I just remember the redwoods when I was researching.”

Jeff lead her down the path that stretched out from the forest and they found themselves on a smooth beach with wet dark wet sat. Down the coast, he could see part of the coast had black, rough rocks. He sat on top of a solitary tall rock on the beach with their backpacks and alternately watched Rose and the horizon. The sounds of sea lions echoed across the ocean from the island they ruled, arguing with themselves and the world about everything and anything. Their barking started to grind on Jeff's ears.

Haven't seen the ocean in so long, the voice said in his head quietly. Good memories.

He didn't hush it, but instead climbed down from the rock and grabbed Rose's shoes and socks where she'd left them beside the rock. She stood in the surf down the beach from him looking out the the island where the sea lions lived, a small smile on her face.

“Hey Rose!” He called out to her. “Let's go further down the beach. Those stupid sea lions are driving me nuts.”

Jeff waited until she returned to his side before walking down towards the rocks he saw earlier. To his surprise, her hand latched onto his hoodie sleeve as they walked.

This area of California was nothing like the other areas he'd been to. Fog clung to the tops of the Redwoods and enshrouded the town. The gray sky hid the sun except for the outline of its disk and everything was quiet except for the waves.

“This reminds me a lot of where my grandmother used to live,” Rose whispered, rubbing her throat. “She lived up in Oregon and it used to be foggy like this a lot there too. I never really got to play on the beach much though. She didn't like me going through the woods to get there, so I had to wait for her to take me.”

Slowly, the sounds of the sea lions became more and more muted until they were at a more tolerable level. Rose's hand left the sleeve of his hoodie as she walked towards the black rocks. Jeff sat back a distance and watched as Rose lifted rocks and sent hordes of crabs scrambling in terror to the next safe place. She looked more at peace than she had in days, and he was glad for that, at least. One crab decided to stand up to his people's diaspora and accosted Rose's big toes, waving his pincers menacingly. Rose just stepped back to another rock and the crab found itself at a loss as to its next course of action. Figuring out his battle was incredibly one sided, the crab jumped back into the water and presumably scooted underneath a cozy rock.

Rose hopped from rock to rock, balancing on the balls of her feet as she inspected the tide pools. However, as she stood up to move to another rock, her feet slipped on the wet surface of the rock and she fell backwards. Jeff scrambled to his feet to help her, but Rose sat up and waved at him.

“I'm okay,” she called to him. “Just another bruise, probably.”

Even though she claimed she was fine, Rose wandered back towards Jeff and sat beside him on the sand. The wind whispered through the tall grass behind them as they looked over the ocean. Jeff looked down the beach where they came from and blinked. Slenderman suddenly was there, standing by the rock he was sitting on earlier. He blinked again and Slenderman stood beside them.

“Our transport docked a few minutes ago,” the tall being said. “They are ready to to relay us down south of the United States border.”

“Wait, relay?” Rose croaked. “I wasn't aware this was a relay effort.”

“Unfortunately, the crew of this ship is uncomfortable with confronting the Leviathan,” Slenderman explained. “They've found another crew to relay us out to the deep ocean. They seem to be more familiar with her, thankfully, and generally know where she is, according to our contacts.”

Without warning, Slenderman put his hands on their shoulders and they were yanked through space again, this time to the wooden docks they saw from the forest earlier. Rose ran over the edge of the dock and retched, leaving Jeff and Slenderman to wince.

“Jesus, man, warn us before you do that next time,” Jeff snarled. He warily eyed an approaching figure who had a very round face and glassy eyes. The man was clothed in an old military jacket with dull gold buttons and wore an odd blue hat, a pirate hat if the skull and crossbones were anything to go by, from which dirty blonde hair stuck out haphazardly around his face. The man also only had one eye: the other socket was simply empty and black. The strangest thing of all was the strings attached to his limbs which dragged on the docks. Attached to their ends were two wooden crosses.

“Percival,” Slenderman greeted. “Thank you for agreeing to transport us as far as you're willing. Are you ready to take off?”

“Aye,” the pirate said. “And call me Percy if you would. I apologize for our lateness. We ran into some rough waters off the coast.”

Jeff looked around the man to see an old wooden frigate with a giant skull with the same glass like eyes Percy had. He jumped when the ship's face sighed and the lower jaw dipped down into the water.

“I hate when it gets in my eyes,” it whined.

“Oh come off it already!” Percy roared back at it. “Ya don't even got eyes! Yer naught but a giant sissy!”

“Oh yeah?” It taunted back. “Then wot are ye, when ye won't even go into caves by yerself? Yer a piss poor pirate, that's wot!”

Percy made several rude gestures towards the ship and sighed. The ship merely rolled its eyes at him.

“Sorry bout that,” he said. “Let's get to boarding now, shall we?”

The trio followed him down the docks and up onto the ship via a rope ladder dropped over the side. Jeff helped Rose up onto the ship and peered around. Her hand clenched his sleeve again as she did the same by his side.

By all rights, the ship shouldn't have been floating at all. It creaked and groaned and the wood looked so thin he feared it would snap underneath his feet. The other crew members weren't anything remarkable in Jeff's view, being a girl, a dark shadow with a mustache and monocle, and a skeleton with a brown top hat, all with the same glassy eyes and all with strings and crosses dragging behind them. The eyes were really starting to creep him out.

“Hey Percy,” Rose said quietly, drawing the attention of the pirate. “I thought the Skin-taker and Horace Horrible were the villains in the show. Why are they on the ship?”

The pirate laughed and winked at her with his only eye.

“Only for the show, darling,” he said. “Outside of it, all that matters is our survival. Like many TV stars, we're all friends behind the scenes.”

Rose nodded and continued to look around as Percy lead them to their quarters. They weren't glorious, with two beds that looked as though they'd seen better days, but they would do for now. Percy took his exit quickly, still arguing with the ship as he walked through its halls. Apparently, it was called the Laughingstock.

Rose flopped over onto bed and winced, probably from a stray spring digging into her back. Jeff sat on the bed across the room from her and dumped their backpacks on the ground. The slight rock of the ship made his stomach twist. However, the rock of the boat already put Rose to sleep, even though her legs were off the edge of the bed. Jeff laughed to himself. If nothing else, this trip would be amusing because of her. He could deal with the stupid fucking sea, he could deal with this stupid fucking fish if he had some sort of amusement. Part of him lamented the loss of the proxies: they would have made this entire trip so much better. He wondered how their hunt went as he lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Hopefully they'd come back with less limbs. Maybe if they didn't, he would have to relieve them of their arms himself. It would serve the masked one right at least, for fucking up Rose as badly as he did.

Jeff tilted his head to the side to study Rose. She'd curled into a ball but he could still see the dark purple shadows on her throat. Bruises covered her face underneath the freckles and her lip was still slightly swollen. It'd never bothered him before when someone else was hurt, especially if he was the one inflicting the wounds. Jeff figured it was a side effect of caring about someone in any way, his sick relationship with Jane aside.

Part of him hoped this war would end before it could really get rolling. More than anything, he wanted Rose out of this hellish shadow world full of nightmares. She wasn't fucked up like the rest of them. She could still blend back into the normal world, but he wasn't sure how much longer that would last.

It wouldn't be long if she kept hanging around him, that was for sure.


	16. Chapter 16

 Part of her wanted this war to end soon. With every day, she became more and more aware of how much her life was in danger, not to mention the lives of every other human on the planet.

But then again, part of her didn't. She let herself become more and more ensnared in this contract with Mephistopheles, relishing in the knowledge available to her. She felt as though she were among gods and in some ways, she was, as she hunted down the Leviathan with her two companions on a ship of nightmares. She didn't want to go back to the asinine daily schedule of work and a pity party about her parents, she didn't want to sit in a coffee shop resenting every college student who walked past her because she couldn't find the aid to attend.

Rose didn't want to lose her place in the world. In this shadow to the normal life she used to live, she had a use which would actually impact the world as a whole instead of being a tiny blip on the radar of time. Even at this point, she could probably die happy, knowing she'd identified the elusive Leviathan. In this world, she wasn't alone either, though some attention she could do without.

As she woke on the gently rocking Laughingstock, body sore and abused and more scared than any other time in her life, Rose realized she was the happiest she'd ever been. She wanted to laugh, but couldn't muster the sound up in her aching throat. Instead, she rolled her head to the side and looked across the dim room to see Jeff on his bed, rolled onto his side away from her and softly snoring.

Rose felt wanderlust itch in her bones, crawling up her arms and legs like fire fueled by her fear and excitement. Without a sound, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, wincing at how sore she was. She carefully crept across the room and out the door, gently shutting it behind her and wandering up creaky wooden steps to the deck.

The ocean's waves whispered against the hull of the ship, calm in the bright night lit by the nearly full moon and stars. Rose heard the Laughingstock mumble to itself softly, a lilt to its voice suggesting it sung sea shanties to the quiet waters and sky. A light up on the main mast swung back and forth, lighting the deck softly with a flickering candle and a figure, probably Percy, leaned forward on its arms in the crow's nest while looking out over the sea. Rose tiptoed to the wooden railing at the side of the ship and looked down at the black silk water. The brine in the air stung her eyes and she rubbed at them furiously.

When she opened her eyes again, Slenderman stood beside her, facing out to the sea, his posture rigid as ever.

“Is your sleep troubled tonight, Rose?” he asked. “Perhaps by pain?”

“Not particularly,” she replied and looked back out over the sea. “I guess I would say I feel wanderlust itching in my bones.”

She could feel the tall man's contemplation mix with the brine in the air.

“Those words are not your own,” he mused. “They have been said many times before by your grandmother, though by how often she told me those words, I think she may have been born with wanderlust instead of marrow in her bones.”

Rose smiled at the rare humor in Slenderman's words.

“She never could settle down until after I was born,” she said. “Even when she had my dad, she would uproot her family and move wherever the wind took her. She stopped though, when her sight failed her.”

Wind whipped across the deck, catching the ends of Rose's hair and making her shiver.

“She was in Oregon by then, in a cabin in a forest near the sea,” she continued. “She would sit on the porch in her wooden rocking chair, knitting by memory and staring out into the woods. I used to sit on her lap a lot. I asked once, what she saw in the woods with her blind eyes. She didn't look away from the woods, and her arms tightened around where they held me. 'Nothing I want to see, child,” she said. 'Nothing good at all for this world. Stay away from the wolves in the woods, girl, if you know what's good for you.'”

Rose looked over to Slenderman.

“I think she was looking for you,” she told him. “I think you were the wolves in the woods.”

He sighed.

“I believe she was looking for me,” he lamented, “for it was the only time I was not able to find her. No matter how far she wandered, I was always at the edge of the woods for her, even when I did not realize she was there with me.”

Slenderman made an odd sound and Rose realized he was laughing.

“She was never afraid of my presence,” he continued. “It was why I enjoyed her company so much. Without fear, she became as close of a friend as I could ever have had. It was unfamiliar for me then, and still is now. The first time I saw her, she was thirteen and in her home land. Her sister was seven and I was in the process of luring her into the forest near their home to be my next prey. Rosie hit me in the face with a broom and ordered her sister back into the house.

“I didn't know what to do with her,” he admitted. “She thought I was the Devil incarnate, and proceeded to tell me she'd not have anything to do with solicitors of any kind, supernatural or not. Her soul was in God's hands, she assured me, so I should take my business elsewhere because she wasn't interested.”

“Well, are you the Devil?” Rose asked coyly, and saw a muscle move under the blank skin of Slenderman's face like an eyebrow raising.

“Am I?” he asked her and Rose gave him an unamused look. He wasn't going to admit to anything that easily.

“I came back,” he told her, “and she hit me with her straw broom again. I grabbed it from her this time though, but Rosie wasn't impressed with my actions then and never, ever was. She asked me what use the Devil would have with a broom and demanded it back. I politely requested she stop hitting me with it. From that moment on, I visited often, probably more than I should have. We fought once, when she became engaged to your grandfather. I became so angry I disappeared for a decade.”

“My curiosity and maybe my own loneliness won out in the end, however,” Slenderman said. “By that time, she moved across the ocean to the United States, less than ten years older than you are right now. I stood at the edge of the woods and saw her through her kitchen window. She had a young boy, but your grandfather was no where to be seen. She saw me and put the boy to bed before coming out the woods to talk to me. Nineteen years ago, she moved again, but this time, I couldn't find her.”

Slenderman's hands clenched the railing of the ship hard enough for it to splinter slightly.

“I never understood why I couldn't find her,” he told Rose. “I looked for her, for her ordered calmness in the rising amount of new myths I dealt with every day. Perhaps it's because she lost her sight. Perhaps it's because she was afraid I would take you.”

“I don't think she hid from you on purpose,” Rose said. “She looked for you every day, even when it was so wet and cold outside she could barely move onto the porch because of her arthritis. She died waiting for you on that porch.”

Rose pushed herself back from the side of the ship.

“I'm going to head back below deck,” she told him. “I'm sorry you never got to see her again. I don't think she was ever really happy again without you.”

“It saddens me to even think she was unhappy,” Slenderman said. “Thank you, Roisin.”

Rose felt her peace shatter and her hackles raise as she looked over her shoulder to see him looking at her.

“Don't call me that,” she snapped. “It's just Rose. Not Roisin.”

She felt Slenderman's eyeless stare on her back as she climbed down the stairs to below deck. To Rose's surprise, Jeff leaned against the wall next to the stairs with a wild smile on his face. She ignored him and stomped past to their shared cabin. She heard his foot steps follow her and the door close behind her.

“So, it's not just Rose after all,” Jeff said. “I'm hurt you lied to me, darling.”

“Don't go there, Jeff,” she warned as she lay down her bed.

“It's not a bad name,” he insisted as he sat on the edge of her bed. “Just an unusual one.”

Rose leveled a glare at him, which he ignored.

“So why the hate for your name?” he asked and scooted closer to her. Rose scooted away from him and drew her knees up to her chest.

Unimpressed by her attempts to ignore him, Jeff pulled her against his side with one arm. She pushed angrily at his chest and tried to get away, but Jeff just pulled her fully into his lap and spun her around to face him with her knees on either side of his legs.

“Why are you making such a big deal about this?” she snarled. “Just drop it.”

“Why are you, Roisin?” he calmly replied, leaning his forehead against hers with a small smile. She tried to escape again but his hands on her hips kept her in place.

“Fine, maybe it is a big deal to me,” she growled. “But it's none of your business.”

“That's not the answer I'm looking for, Roisin,” he drawled, drawing out her name. Rose just glared at him and looked away angrily, one of her hands softly touching her throat. Raising her voice combined with her throat clenching in on itself in anger and anxiety made it even sorer. She flinched back when Jeff's hand lightly touched her throat.

“I'm not trying to hurt you, chickadee,” he told her softly. “You're probably not doing yourself any favors by being so angry. It probably hurts more doesn't it?”

With Rose still on his lap, Jeff swung his legs over the edge of the bed and picked her up in his arms. Rose made a small sound in protest and her arms wrapped around his neck for support. Jeff chuckled.

“Asshole,” she croaked as he sat down on his bed next to his backpack. He pulled out the tube of pain relieving cream Jack sent with them and popped the cap. She winced away from him as his cold fingers touched her throat but his other hand on her back held her in place.

“You know, I think you owe me, Roisin,” he taunted. “I spilled my heart out to you the night I found out I wasn't totally insane, so you might as well tell me why you hate your name so much.”

Rose was quiet for a moment as he tipped back her head and cradled her skull in the hand that used to be on her back so he could see her throat better. She let her eyes slip closed in defeat and sighed.

“I wasn't like you,” she whispered. “You had a pretty normal family growing up. My parents hated me and each other from the moment they found out they were having me. They told me when I was little that I was the reason they fought, and the first fight they had was over what to name me. My dad won, at least on the birth certificate. At home, though, I was called both Roisin and Rosalyn, which is what my mother wanted to name me.”

She shivered as the Mentholatum in the cream started to work on her throat.

“It wasn't any better at school,” she continued, “with teachers and classmates who had no idea how to pronounce it. I was made fun of a lot and bullied. Remember when I told you I had something similar happen to me when you lost Jane? The only person who was ever really in my corner was my grandmother, and I lost my only pillar of support when she died. It was then I decided I only wanted to be Rose, not the Roisin or Rosalyn my parents and peers hated.”

“So it's just Rose,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “Nothing else.”

Jeff didn't say anything at first, but pushed them back farther on the bed and pulled forward so she lay on his chest and wrapped his arms around her. Rose gave in, too exhausted from anger and pain to fight back again. She felt sleep claw at the edges of her consciousness.

“Just Rose it is then, babe,” she heard his voice rumble through his chest. His fingers trailed down her sides gently, as though he was afraid of breaking her. Jeff's finger tips brushed underneath her shirt on her back, chasing the goosebumps as they formed. Her hands clenched into his hoodie as a different shiver shot through her. However, Jeff just seemed content to let his fingers trail across the small over back and nothing more, so instead of warning him to back off, she let him continue as she slowly drifted off to sleep.


	17. Chapter 17

The Laughingstock docked in Cabo San Juan around midnight two days later. Other than the distant sounds of gun shots and cars, the harbor was abandoned except for a lone ship which took refuge in its waters. It was large wooden vessel, obviously older than the Laughingstock, with a caricature of a mermaid lashed to the ship's head.

Rose watched as a gamut of figures moved back and forth on the deck of the Flying Dutchman. As its legend spread, so did the range of the ghost ship and its crew, extending to all of the oceans of the Earth. Mostly, however, the captain and his crew stuck to warmer waters, forsaking the cold former trade routes they used to trawl. Davy Jones stood at the wheel of his ship, blue tobacco smoke dancing up from his nose into the night's air.

“I thought the Flying Dutchman was cursed to never make port?” Rose quizzed Percy as he walked behind her with a wooden crate balanced on one of his shoulders. He shrugged with his free shoulder.

“Technically, this ain't a port anymore,” he explained. “And if ye look carefully, they're actually just moving round a wee bit. After a few hundred years, old Davy's figured out a few loop holes to his curse.”

Percy threw the crate on to the deck. Apparently, the crew of the Dutchman still desired objects from the shore to pass their eternal banishment with and the crew of the Laughingstock was keen to help their fellow sailors where they could. Many of the crates held literature of some sort, with newspapers, magazines and books carefully packed away by the crew of the Laughingstock. Others held tobacco and alcohol, standard sea fare for ever wandering lost souls.

Rose studied the sailors aboard the Dutchman. Some were nearly transparent, souls bound by their sins to the infamous ship until the end of time. Others were more solid, some human while others seemed to be part sea creature.

Davy Jones seemed to be human other than the gills on his throat which flared when he blew smoke from a pipe out of his nose. He had tangled blonde hair pulled back into a pony tail at the base of his neck. His eyes lacked both pupils and the regular white cornea. Instead, his eyes were the flat blue of a cloudless sky. Rose couldn't tell where or what he was looking at other than when he moved his head to observe his crew on other parts of the ship.

The Laughingstock sailed up on the Dutchman's starboard side and Jones' crew cheered. Ropes thrown to the Laughingstock were quickly secured by Percy, allowing his ship to be towed closer. Planks were dropped over the side and the crew of the Dutchman scrambled over to the Laughingstock.With obvious glee, they hauled the crates stacked against the ship’s cabin (and some below) back to the Dutchman. 

Davy Jones himself walked over the plank and offered his hand to Slenderman, who shook it carefully.

“It’s been a long while, old friend,” he told Slenderman. “I had no idea our cargo would include you! What brings you to these parts?”

“I seek to speak with the Leviathan, Jonas,” Slenderman said. “Percival indicated you would be familiar with her location.”

“With Mother Leviathan?” Jones reaffirmed and shook his head. “I can get you to her, but there’s no guarantee she’ll want to speak with you. Also, it’s just Jones now. Jonas makes me feel old.”

Jones peered around Slenderman to where Rose stood nervously, hands clenched white behind her back.

“Who’s your cargo?” he asked. “She looks like she’s about to keel over from fear.”

“This is Rose,” Slenderman told Jones. “She has a personal interest in meeting the Leviathan, as well as being too valuable of an asset to leave behind unattended. Also...”

Slenderman trailed off as Jeff stumbled up from below the deck holding the backpacks, almost tripping on a thick rope which lay on the deck.

“There is Jeffrey,” he continued, “who is simply too much trouble to leave alone as well. He has the tendency to harass others when unoccupied, including my proxies.”

“He fucks around with your proxies?” Jones said, laughing. “Well, that takes some balls!”

“I think he merely lacks a healthy sense of fear,” Slenderman replied dryly, “for he has done it more than once. He tends to be more trouble than he is worth. However, he would see the world burn before his chance of vengeance on Zalgo slips away, so he makes an excellent guard for Rose.”

Jones looked back and forth between Rose and Slenderman and frowned.

“What does she have to do with god damn Zalgo?” he demanded. “What does any of this have to do with Zalgo? I’d rather not mess with him, Mephistopheles, so you’d better start talking.”

“He is attempting to raise the Sunken City,” Slenderman explained. “Which, I think, voids all normal circumstances of avoiding him, which I do as well. The Leviathan would have interest in knowing this, I think.”

“How do you know Mother Leviathan doesn’t already know?” Jones said. “There isn’t much that escapes her notice in the seas, especially the Sunken City. She’s been watching that since its resident arrived on Earth.”

“She may already know,” Slenderman acknowledged, “but it is imperative she does not lean towards inaction concerning Zalgo’s actions. She has always been a staunch believer of her role in this world and I fear this war will interfere with it.”

“Well, I can get you there,” Jones said grudgingly. “I can’t guarantee she’ll be happy to see you though. She prefers to be left alone above all else.”

Jones walked back across the plank and signaled to follow him. Slenderman walked without hesitation across it, but Rose’s legs felt like jelly when she set foot on it. It groaned under the slightest bit of weight. She saw the black ocean roiling below the plank, the siren song of its waves slapping against the ships’ sides echoing in her ears as her vision spun. She dug her heels in when Jeff’s hands pushed into her back. She looked over her shoulder and glared.

“I thought you liked the ocean,” he said quietly as he looked past her to where Jones and Slenderman were still talking.

“I do!” She whispered back harshly. “I just don’t really like heights. Besides, this thing doesn’t sound like it’s going to hold very well.”

To prove her point, she let her weight rest down onto the foot which rested on the plank. It creaked again. Jeff rolled his eyes.

“Well, the sooner you get across, the sooner you don’t have to be on it,” he said. “Come on, chickadee.”

Rose shook her head and a wicked smile lit up Jeff’s face.

“Well, I guess there’s only one solution,” he told her. “I’m going to have to pick you up and carry you over in front of all these people.”

Her face paled further.

“Don’t you dare, Jeff,” she snarled and took a step back onto the plank, which groaned in protest. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear I hate that.”

“Then move,” he said and lunged towards her. Rose jumped back out of his reach, legs shaking as she found herself further back on the plank. 

“I swear it’s things like this that make me really, really hate you,” she hissed and stepped back as he approached her.

“I think you just need to relax,” he teased back. “I’ve made it pretty clear I’m not going to hurt you. If anything, it’s the opposite.”

Jeff reached for her again and Rose stepped back once more and stumbled as she fell backwards off the plank and onto her back. Jeff howled with laughter and she glared at him.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” she snarled and stomped off to where a crew member called her to, below deck where the crew’s quarters where like on the Laughingstock.

“And you, darling, are way too uptight,” he said as he followed her below deck. “You’re scared about the things you can control and not scared enough about the things that can actually hurt you.”

“Says the man who makes it a point to harass Slenderman’s proxies,” she said.

Once a trade and passenger ship, the Dutchman still had cabins from its living days, much to Rose’s relief. Any amount of privacy was welcome to her, although she had a feeling she still wouldn’t be getting much with Jeff rooming with her. After examining the room and letting Jeff drop off their bags, Rose and Jeff went back up to the deck.

“Maybe it’s a good thing you’re such a wuss,” he said as they walked over to the ship’s head and watched as the last of the cargo was carried over by the Flying Dutchman’s crew.

“It’s a good thing for predators like you,” she mused as she watched the stars above the ship. “I’ll be like a deer in the headlights when one of you finally kills me.”

“Maybe,” he said. “But it also means you’re real, that you’re not hiding behind a mask like the rest of us are. Nightmares have their own fears too, you know. A lot of us are more human than we’d care to admit a lot of times.”

Rose thought this over, trying not to watch the waves underneath the hull for fear of making her head spin wildly again.

“So what are you afraid of then?” she asked and watched him out of the corner of her eye. The corners of his real mouth tucked in, forming a grimace. 

“I forget sometimes that you ask so many questions,” Jeff said. “Mainly the difficult ones.”

“You’re avoiding my question, though,” she pointed out. “What is the big bad wolf afraid of, now that he’s at the top of the food chain?”

“I’m not though,” he told her. “I’m actually not at the top of the food chain if you think about it. I’m not the most powerful or the most mystical or whatever. Jack’s less human than I am and he’s much more powerful in a lot of ways. Guys like Slenderman and Zalgo could eat small fish like me for breakfast.”

“Okay, so you’re afraid of bigger sharks,” she said. “What else?”

Jeff looked at her warily with an eyebrow crooked.

“Why should I tell you anymore?” he asked. “It might come back to bite me in the ass some day.”

“Because I’ll pester you until you tell me,” she said smartly and he winced.

“Oh, that might actually be terrifying,” he sassed. “You’re like a flea on a wolf’s back. Annoying, but really nothing dangerous.”

Rose frowned and huffed, offended at the comparison. Jeff sighed and Rose could see his resolve crumble.

“This war, I guess,” he said, “to answer your question. This war puts more fear in me than my ego would like to admit. I’m afraid of dying, even with all the terrible shit I’ve done, or being tortured and played with like a mouse to Zalgo’s cat if he wins. A lot things, I guess.”

“Why not run?” she asked. “I don’t think Slenderman would fault you. He probably wants to himself.” 

“I thought about it,” Jeff admitted. “I still want to, just to preserve my own hide.”

“So why not?” Rose pestered. Jeff looked out over the ocean as the Dutchman’s crew pulled the planks away and Percy cut the ropes. The Dutchman began to move at a faster pace, making its way to the old harbor’s mouth as the crew waved back at the Laughingstock. The ship’s booming laughter followed them out of the harbor. Still, though, Jeff hadn’t responded. If Rose didn’t know any better, she would have said there was sadness in eyes. Without a word, he turned away from her and headed back below deck, leaving Rose to shiver slightly in the cool breeze of the ocean. 

She had a feeling she’d just found something Jeff himself wasn’t entirely sure of yet, and a small voice in Rose’s head warned it concerned her. 


	18. Chapter 18

 When she was small, Rose's parents would drop her off whenever they could at her grandmother's house, especially for longer school breaks like summer. Rose didn't mind. It was quiet at her grandmother's house, where the only sounds came from the ocean and the wind whispering through the trees in the forest and the soft creak of the rocking chair on the front porch. No one yelled at her but for once, someone actually cared.

Though it wasn't often, sometimes her grandmother would take her down to the beach to let Rose run wild while her grandmother napped. Rose proudly carried the collapsible wooden chair down to the beach and set it up for her grandmother before sprinting off into the spray of the waves. Her grandmother would watch for a while, her face mild and relaxed instead of wearing the lonely expression she often would while looking off into the woods. Rose remembered vividly the one day her grandmother took her home early.

The night before, a storm blew in from across the sea, causing the usual whispering wind to shriek violently through the pine trees and shake the windows. Rose sat in her room's closet, hands clapped over her ears. When her grandmother found her, she promised to take Rose to the beach the next day. When they arrived to the beach however and Rose dashed out to set up the old wooden chair, her grandmother called out to her, fear in her voice. She looked down to her feet to see something that resembled a shiny, black deflated balloon. Looking around, there were more on the beach. The storm washed jellyfish onto the usually desolate sands of the beach that day, and Rose's visit was cut short after her grandmother explained that even after death, jellyfish had a vengeful sting and she was lucky to not have stepped on one.

Looking over the side of the Flying Dutchman now, Rose decided that the giant blue jellyfish which floated along side the ship were most likely more dangerous than a deflated Man of War. A few days after leaving Cabo San Juan, one of the sailors gave a cry from the crow's nest a few hours after night fell. One by one, glowing circles in the ocean appeared in the boat's path. Though serene with their four petaled design and movements through the water, Rose guessed that these jellyfish were probably more than five feet in diameter.

The path of the jellyfish seemed to lead to the moon across the dark, roiling ocean. Quietly, the Dutchman changed its course to follow the glowing path. The jellyfish seemed unharmed and undisturbed by the large ship floating through their numbers. However, the normally raucous crew was silent as they floated among the blue jellyfish, almost seeming reverent of their guides. Davy Jones’ face looked drawn and aged by the blue light as he guided his beloved ship through the ocean towards an ancient being which inspired legends and myths through its sheer awe and enormity.

Jeff appeared by her side from below the deck, still as silent as he had been since their first night aboard the Dutchman.

“I've never seen a jellyfish before,” he finally said. “I didn't think they got this big.”

“I don't think they usually do,” Rose replied. “At least, not the ones I've seen. These are the first live ones I've seen though, and they deflate a lot when they wash up and dry out.”

Jeff said nothing in return but continued to stare at the glowing path. Davy Jones handed over the wheel of the ship to his first mate and stepped down from the quarter deck to the main deck to peer over the sides near Rose and Jeff.

“These are actually just normal moon jellies for all they look so extraordinary,” he told them. “However, nothing that follows Mother Leviathan is normal, which is why they're so large. They're quite harmless actually and don't have much of a sting. They're also edible...not that I would ever eat one of Mother Leviathan's personal entourage members.”

Even Slenderman seemed entranced by the giant jellyfish, standing at the head of the ship and staring out over the waters. Rose watched as a jellyfish seemed to get stuck at the stem of the ship, unable to slip easily to the side as its brothers were. The shadows seemed to move and suddenly the jellyfish was free, smoothly gliding along the ship's side. Rose thought she saw a tentacle slip back into Slenderman's sleeve as the shadows writhed again. Feeling her eyes on him, Slenderman peered back over his shoulder at her and Rose looked away, a small smile on her face. Jeff gave her an odd look but she just shook her head.

A low rumble slowly grew in volume as they followed the path until Rose had to cover her ears with her hands. A sound like a whip echoed over the ocean and Jones gave the order to throw the anchor over the side carefully as to not harm the jellyfish which still floated along side them. 

Following the whip sound, a swell rushed towards the ship, carrying both the ship and the jellyfish upwards for a brief moment before settling them down onto the sea. Rose saw a gigantic shape, like a whale's tail and bigger than the Dutchman, lift up out of the ocean and slap down onto the black water, carrying both the whip sound and another swell towards the ship. 

In the soft light, she could see a black mass approach them from underneath the waves, its sheer enormity defying anything she’d ever seen in the ocean. The Dutchman rocked back as the Leviathan’s gigantic eye surfaced, the same color as Davy Jones’ own eyes and almost half the size of the Flying Dutchman. It blinked slowly, sending the jellyfish spinning away from it in small eddies. The rumble stopped and a sigh echoed across the glowing ocean. Rose's hands dropped from her ears to hold onto the edge of the deck as the ship bucked and rocked on the waves. 

When the giant's eye fixed upon her, Rose felt a very primal fear rise from her stomach and felt very small and insignificant, like a grain of sand under the foot of a conqueror. The Leviathan impossibly ancient and she wasn't the only one affected by it. The sailors of the Flying Dutchman knelt down to the Mother of the Seas. Jones looked upon the Leviathan with the admiration of a child towards its mother, but still the Leviathan's eye stayed trained on her. Looking into the eye, Rose was hit with a sense of nostalgia, the memory of her grandmother's face looking out over the sea while she sat in her old wooden chair surfacing in her mind.

“Hail, Hierophant,” a female voice whispered.

Rose looked around, but no one else seemed to have heard the voice. Everyone's gaze was focused on the Leviathan. It took her a moment to realize the Leviathan was talking to her much like Slenderman did: in her head.

“I'm not sure who you're talking about,” she said back to the eye, and everyone's attention turned to her.

“She's talking to you?” Jones asked and Rose hesitantly nodded.

“I think so, but I'm not sure who she's talking about,” Rose said.

“You,” the Leviathan whispered in her mind again.

“You can't hear her?” she asked, a little frantic. “Because I can hear her loud and clear.”

“Hail Hierophant,” the Leviathan said. “You alone among your race are the pontifex between the night's predators and the day's clueless lambs. You alone shall record the next chapter of this world's march towards the end, and shall see the survivors feast upon my flesh. There have been many like you in the past, but your role alone is unique. None shall come after you, child.” 

“I think you've got this all wrong,” Rose insisted. “I'm not who you say I am. I'm just a girl with a map and ideas and obviously no sense of fear.” 

The Leviathan chuckled in her mind and Rose watched as her flesh twitched like a horse's, sending the jellyfish which rested on her side gleefully spinning off into the ocean.

“Only once have I been wrong, child,” she told Rose. “Only once, and I bet against the survival of your species against predators like myself. How wrong I was, that such small beings could fight back the giants of their own fears.”

“What is she telling you, Rose?” Slenderman asked, but she ignored him.

“Then you've got to be wrong a second time!” she yelled back at the enormous god. “I'm nothing but a flea compared to everyone else in this war!”

“You're a flea with the courage to yell at a lion,” the Leviathan said, “which is more than any other of your kind can do. Now, though, you're not among them anymore, though perhaps not as nightmarish as the rest of Heylel's lot.”

“Okay then, let's assume you're right,” Rose said back. “What the hell am I supposed to do?” 

“You're not a fighter, little one,” the Leviathan replied. “You're meant to remember the story of the war to come for those who survive the real rise of Megido. You're meant to keep the stories now alive and keep humanity in their role of prey until it's time for them to become more. Humanity has its own greater role to play in this universe, but it is not yet its time. Your role is the most important of all in some ways, because you're meant to bring about the betterment of your kind.”

The loud groan sounded again and the Flying Dutchman shook as the Leviathan's eye rolled back into the ocean.

“I will join your war,” said the Leviathan, “for it is not yet time for the real end. The invaders of this Earth are blasphemous with their disregard the the flow of the universe in their search for power. It is time their grip on this planet comes to an end.”

The tail of the Leviathan lifted above the ocean and slapped back down, parting the waves into two huge swells and tilting the Dutchman dangerously.

“Good bye, little one,” she said. “And good luck.”

Rose clung to the wooden rail as the Leviathan slid by the boat, following the path the jellyfish set out in front of her. Everyone on the ship watched as the giant being slid off into the ocean, diving deep beneath the surface until her shape was no longer distinguishable from the inky blackness of the depths.

“Rose,” Slenderman said, and her attention finally turned to him. “What did the Leviathan say?”

“She said she'd join the war,” Rose said, still watching the trail of luminescent jellyfish. “She also called me something I still don't understand. I mean, I understand it in theory, but I don't get how it relates to me. Didn't she say anything to any of you?”

Everyone shook their heads except for Jeff, who shrugged.

“What she said to me doesn't matter,” he said, but there was a thoughtful look on his face. “Nothing about the war or Zalgo or that stupid Atlantis city.”

“What did she call you, Rose?” Slenderman asked.

“She called me a Hierophant,” she said. “And also a pontifex. But I'm nothing like that.”

“Perhaps you are,” Slenderman said. “It seems I've unwittingly damned you into this world by requesting your help. Do you know the significance of the Hierophant and pontifices?”

“Traditionally, the pontifices were advisers in Rome, literally the link sometimes between man and god as they advised the Roman Senate of the gods' will,” she said. “They also recorded events and history of the Roman Empire. Pontifex means 'bridge builder', as they serve as the link between worlds. 

“The Hierophant, however, mostly holds significance in the Major Arcana and is usually represented as the Pope, who is known as the Pontifex Maximus,” she continued. “It's meant to represent an adviser, a teacher or knowledge as well as deference towards social order, which might mean your...group's superiority over mankind for the moment being.”

“Do you not see yourself already fulfilling this role?” Slenderman pointed out. “You are the bridge between worlds at the moment. You have advised me in this world. There is a reason the Leviathan has called you as such.”

“Perhaps,” Rose said. “But don't you think it's an awful big role for a small human being?”

“I do believe there's a tale in which a mouse pulls a thorn from a lion's paw,” Slenderman said. “Sometimes it is the smallest among us who accomplish the most.”


	19. Chapter 19

 “You're lucky, you know, to have washed ashore here.”

The girl ignored the doctor and stared past him to the open window. Sunlight spilled past the white cotton drapes until its warm rays whispered around the sheets at her feet.

“There's good medical care here,” the doctor continued, “and a lot of English speakers. We can get you home.”

Still, the girl didn't give any indication she'd heard him, focusing instead on the hum of the bugs which lived in the trees outside. Their sounds echoed in her head and she winced slightly.

“Let us get you home,” the doctor insisted, “or at least somewhere you'd be safe. Don't think we didn't notice the past trauma to your neck and head. You don't have to go home if you don't want to, but you need to tell us what your name is, or anything about you.”

One brave cicada landed on the window and after a moment of crawling around on the window, he began to sing.

“I can't,” the girl said as she watched the cicada, and the doctor sighed.

 

It wasn't like she was trying to be difficult, though the doctors in this hospital seemed convinced she was trying her hardest. She'd woken up to the whir of the cicadas outside the hospital window, and to the emptiness in her own head in which the song echoed. It was an odd thing, really, to forget everything that made a person their own individual. She could remember how to read and write and all the basic stuff she'd probably done all her life (maybe), but she couldn't remember anything about herself.

 

She was sure the doctors thought she was crazy. She couldn't really blame them either. Maybe she was. She slept too little, jumping at the shadows which danced unnaturally across the walls at night. Her nails scratched bloody trails into her arms as she clenched them in fear and her doctors finally decided to restrict her hands at night 'for her own safety'. She'd screamed when one of her nurses went to take her blood pressure when one moment the nurse's face was a rotting, eyeless nest of maggots and blink, normal again. She'd lied to her doctor when he asked her what the matter was, saying she'd had a flashback of the roiling sea. Her primary doctor, Dr. Juarez, told her it probably had to do with a little brain damage she'd sustained from her time in the ocean. It'd get better soon, he said, as he increased the dosage of the sedative fed into her arm.

He lied.

Things got worse. Instead of seeing normal faces around her, every doctor and nurse except for Dr. Juarez became monsters, each with their own nightmare they brought on. She couldn't stand to have the television on or the Garfield comic books they'd brought near her. One moment all would be normal and the next, a character's eyes would be melting out of their head and blood streaming out of their noses and mouths as they strangled the life out of other characters. Always they said the whisper she wished so desperately the cicadas would drown out, the whisper which echoed through the halls and out of the mouths of the nurses and doctors when they thought she was asleep, out of the mouth of the maggot nurse as she stood over the girl's bed while maggots fell from her face onto the sheets.

“He comes.”

 

But maybe she wasn't crazy. Maybe they were. After the incident with the maggot nurse, the girl became more and more sure she was seeing things they didn't want her to see. However, they'd figured out she could and so they waited. The most primal part of the girl knew they were waiting for her to admit she'd seen something she hadn't, seen the disgusting, rotting corpses of the staff and heard the whispers in the hallways, a sick game of cat and mouse. When would the mouse break and feed itself to the cat? She fought her fear, fought the vomit which rose in her throat every time someone walked in the room. She'd trained her eyes to stare out the window at the shiny green leaves of the tropical trees, to listen to the hum of the cicadas. It hadn't escaped her notice that she seemed to be the only patient at this hospital. She'd play their game. They couldn't keep her here forever.

Right?

 

She knew they were getting frustrated when they started placing magazines at her bed side. Any fool could tell they were heavily doctored and edited, but Dr. Juarez joked about the poor quality of Mexican magazines. He'd open them to a page detailing coverage of recent serial killers, and ask if she knew any of them. Their faces, horrifying and disfigured as they were, were familiar to her. She'd lied though, and acted shocked and disgusted at their acts. Dr. Juarez left in a foul mood that day.

 

The staff caved one day and took her outside, claiming that perhaps the fresh air would help her. As the attendant left her alone, she quietly gagged at the smell of the rotting flesh which pervaded the garden, careful to not draw the attention of her captors. She could see the muted shine of small ivory bones under the bushes and over the brick wall which enclosed the hospital, she could see swinging figures hanging from the tropical trees. Small animal corpses were hidden behind statues and trees, half eaten and ripped apart, swarming with carrion insects. Instead of breaking down and crying, she smiled serenely, pretending to enjoy the garden as if it were the most beautiful place in the world, as if instead of cries in the distance, tropical birds sang arias in the trees. Cicadas landed on the blood stained hospital gown she wore and sang to drown out the whispers of _hecomeshecomeshecomes_ from the hanging figures in the distance.

 

She knew she couldn't keep it up forever. They had her drugged so heavily she couldn't school her reactions as well as she was able to in the beginning. She'd slip up soon, when they finally found something so shocking she wouldn't be able to keep her repulsion hidden away. But until then, she'd let them think she was crazy, that she'd been hit on the head and wasn't able to see any of the nightmares around her.

 

Her salvation came as she lay awake on her hospital bed, wrists trapped in leather shackles as her fingers strained out against the stained bandages they'd wrapped her hands in that day. Protection, they'd insisted. She tried to breathe normally as red eyed shadows danced aggressively across the walls.

“He comes,” they insisted, and she couldn't help but wish whoever it was would get here already so all of this madness could stop.

A new sound broke through the night, though and the girl's attention turned from the hellish phantasms to the window, where something scraped against the side of the building. The shadows halted in their dance. A pale hand appeared on the sill and the shadows scattered to the winds. A shadowed figured hoisted itself up through the window and as it approached the girl, she could see it had a large butcher's knife in one of its hands. She felt cold terror run through her body as the figure came close enough she could finally make out its features.

The intruder was a young man with long black hair and she guessed he was probably around her age. However, if the knife in his hand didn't clue her in to how dangerous he was, the badly healed scars stretching out from his mouth did. She recognized him from the badly doctored magazine Juarez had her look at. He chuckled as he studied her face.

“I never thought I'd be getting that kind of look for rescuing you,” he said. The girl blinked owlishly.

“I'm sorry?” she said incredulously. “You're here to rescue me?”

“Why else would I be here?” he said and came closer to the bed. The girl shrank back as far as she could with the restraints still holding her wrists hostage.

“To kill me?” she squeaked.

This time, it was the killer who looked shocked.

“Rose, what's gotten into you?” he demanded. “I'd never hurt you!”

She shook her head.

“I don't know who you are,” she said. “I don't know who Rose is either. I think you've got the wrong person.”

She flinched as an inhuman scream rang out through the hallways of the hospital.

“Sounds like they've found out,” the killer said, “or that the proxies found them. We've got to get going.”

He lunged towards her with the knives and the girl's eyes snapped closed, expecting the worst. However, she felt the restraint around one of her wrists fall loose. She opened one eye to see the killer cut through the other with the large knife. He offered her a hand and hauled her to her feet.

“I'll explain later, I guess,” he said, “but right now, anywhere is better than here.”

The door slammed open to reveal a man in a yellow hood. His face seemed to be shrouded by black material.

“This hallway's clear for now,” he told the other man. “You need to get going though before the rest of the calvary shows up.”

The girl squeaked as the scarred killer swept her up off her feet into his arms. She scowled at him and he offered her a cheeky smile as he ran out the door after the other man.

“Sorry, not sorry,” he whispered to her as more screams rang out behind them.

She watched over his shoulder, horrified as the maggot nurse crawled after them on four legs, head rotating from side to side as she screamed. Another door slammed open and a masked man burst through, aiming a kick to the nurse's torso. She slammed against the wall, a scream dying a harsh gurgle deep in her throat.

The group flew down the stairs and through the hallways of the ground floor as the walls came alive and writhed around them. She could hear the doctors and nurses behind them, finally aware their mouse might finally be escaping. The girl felt a small flutter of relief in her chest as the killer ran through the steel double doors of the hospital towards a white van around the side. The killer all but dived into the van, quickly followed by the masked and hooded men. The automatic locks clicked just as the doctors and nurses hit the sides of the van, causing it to rock violently. The girl covered her ears with her still bound hands as nails scratched against the glass and paint and screams echoed through the van. An arm snaked around her shoulder and she could see the killer's lips move. She was jolted back by the hooded man flooring the accelerator, tearing out of the courtyard and busting through rusted gates, the denizens of the hospital sliding of the sides as the van hurdled down a narrow street. Hands still blocking out the distant screams, she looked back to the hospital to see a building that looked as though it could collapse at any moment.

A hand softly tugged her hands away from her ears one at a time. She tried to sit patiently, bravely as the killer cut the bandages and unwrapped her hands, trying not to flinch at the knife. His hands turned each one of hers over as he examined them. His fingers trailed up her arms to where long scabs ran down like pin stripes and he gently ran his fingers over the wounds. She flinched and shivered, pulling back from him. He caught her hands with his own before she could completely pull away.

“I know you didn't hear me chickadee,” he said, “but you're safe now. I don't know what happened, but we'll figure it out.”

The words echoed in her head as she looked around the van filled with murderers. Safe? Probably not. But safer?

More than likely.


	20. Chapter 20

The killer's name was Jeff, or so he told her as the van shot through narrow cobbled streets. “And yours is Rose, do you really not remember?” he asked her.

Rose, as the girl supposed she used to be, shook her head and shrank back from him as he reached out to touch her arms again. He faltered, and shakily drew his hand back back, hurt evident in his eyes. It curled into a tense fist beside him on the van seat. Despite being out of the hellish hospital, she felt like doing nothing more than curling up and dying finally out of the monsters' reach. It felt like an utter violation of her soul to have seen the bodies swinging and whispering in the trees and the maggots crawling on her sheets and oh god…

She took a shaky breath in and pulled her knees up to her chest as her chest felt like it imploded from pain. Why was she here? Why did she want anything to do with these people or monsters or whatever they were?

She shivered in disgust at the memory of the rotting, hollow face above her bed, an unusual cold creeping into her bones past the flimsy gown and pants she wore, spiting the warm Mexican air. Jeff shrugged off the stained white hoodie he wore and pulled it down over her head without asking. Still panicking and generally feeling miserable, Rose allowed him to do so.

But as Rose had learned through her sojourn at the hospital of nightmares, the universe wouldn’t let anything good that happened to her go unpunished. Just as she went to pull the seat belt across her chest after noticing she hadn’t put it on, the hooded man promptly stomped on the brakes, sending Rose’s face into the seat in front of her. Jeff groaned as his seatbelt painfully caught him. Rose gingerly felt her nose and felt blood run over her fingers.

“What the fuck was that for?” he spat at the driver, who just offered a choked squeak as a response. Rose looked up in time just to see two gigantic scaled feet smash down onto the hood of the van. A narrow, reptilian head covered with the same tan scales swung down and leaned against the window, eyes narrowing.

“Now listen here, you fucking useless sacks of meat,” it hissed loud enough to be heard through the windshield. “You’re going to let me in the back of that metal death trap and you’re going to drive. I don’t care where, I just want it to be far away. If you do that, I might not eat you and this van whole. Got it?”

Without waiting for a response, it scrambled around the side of the van, disappearing from sight until it managed to open the back of the van and ungracefully flopped into the back, smaller than before with weeping lesions on its body. The hooded man squeaked again.

“Drive, fuck nugget,” it hissed and the hooded man floored the accelerator, and Rose decided the lizard sounded distinctly male.

“What the fuck, man?” Jeff yelled as the van continued down the narrow streets. “Did you honestly just let a hitchhiking lizard hijack the van?”

“I’m a very dangerous hitchhiking lizard, thank you,” the lizard huffed. “And I’m not alone.”

A small black haired child popped up behind Rose.

“Hi, I’m Abby!” she said. Jeff groaned.

“Great, a smartass lizard and a brat,” Jeff said. “Even better.”

A large foot pushed the giggling girl down, effectively covering her ears.

“If any of you professional asswagons try to kill her, I promise you’ll suffer the most miserable death I can imagine,” the lizard promised.

“Which probably isn’t that imaginative, considering you’re a lizard,” Jeff said and a vicious snarl ripped from the lizard’s throat. “And what the fuck, why would any of us kill her? I mean, yeah, I guess three out of the four of us are murderers and kids can be annoying, but I don’t think any of us would just off her. Barring that I go batshit, of course.”

The lizard’s eyes narrowed.

“So, none of you feel anything strange when you look at this girl?” he asked as he held up the girl by her head. She squirmed and giggled even more, seemingly unbothered by the monster holding her. “No sudden murderous urges?”

“Only when I look at you,” Jeff said shrugging, and the lizard rolled his eyes.

“From one circus freak show to another,” the lizard muttered and held the child near to Rose. “Okay, you seem normal. What about you?”

Rose shook her head.  
“Not really feeling anything,” she said, “but I’m not the most reliable person to ask at the moment.”

The lizard plopped Abby down.

“What do you mean, you’re not the most reliable person to ask?” the lizard demanded. “You’re the most normal person here.”

“Seeing as, uh, I’ve had some recent memory loss,” she said, scrambling, “I’m probably not a good indicator of whatever you’re looking for.”

The lizard snorted.

“Memory loss?” he said. “That’s nothing. Let me fuck around with your head a bit, see if I can’t do anything. It’ll probably hurt a bit since I haven’t done this in oh, a thousand years or so. I usually eat heads, not dig through them.”

The lizard’s clawed foot shot towards her and as white hot pain seared behind Rose’s eyes, she couldn’t help but think he lied.

 

When Rose floated back into consciousness, the first thing she became aware of was the disconcerting sensation of two sets of memory. She was fairly certain she was back to normal, but the second set of memories from after she’d woken up after she’d fallen into the ocean felt odd, like having another personality. The second thing she became aware of was how much her head hurt. Pain echoed in the back of her head and ran down her neck while her eyes felt like they were about to throb out of their sockets as the morning light hit them. She groaned.

The third thing she noticed was the van was empty save a pair of brown eyes watching her from the back of the van.

“Abby, right?” she asked as she leaned her head back against the seat, and the girl’s head bobbed.

“Yeah,” she said, “but they call me oh-five-three.”

“Who’s ‘they’?” Rose asked.

“The SCP Foundation, there to Secure, Contain, and Protect,” Abby parroted, obviously having said it many times before.”

Rose groaned internally. Yet another thing off the Internet that really shouldn’t be real. Great.

“Abby, how old are you?” she asked and Abby shyly held up five fingers. Poor girl. Only five and already in a world full of monsters. But if she was contained by SCP…

“Abby, do you know why you...stayed with SCP?” Rose carefully asked. Abby shook her head.

“I dunno,” she said frowning. “But I know I’ve had two birthdays since they brought me there, and Mommy and Daddy haven’t been there.”

Absence of parents never meant anything good in this shadow world. Rose wondered if the lizard’s earlier inquiry had anything to do with her missing parents. The lizard was conspicuously absent from the back of the van when Rose checked. The only thing that suggested he’d been there in the first places were a few tan scales.

“Where’s your friend, Abby?” Rose asked and the girl shrugged.

“Dunno,” she said in an equally sweet and annoying manner only children could do. “He’s probably eating something. He does that when he’s mad. Or when he’s not. He just kinda eats a lot.”

Wonderful.

Abby shrunk beside the seat as the locks on the van clicked to unlock. Looking out the window for the first time, Rose saw the van had pulled up to a very sketchy convenience store. All three men opened the doors to the van, one giant lizard still absent. Jeff gave Rose a small smile before dangling a plastic bag behind the seat for Abby. A small hand reached up and grabbed it and a happy squeal indicated Abby’s delight in its contents.

“Colouring books, crayons, a pack of juice boxes and crackers, as ordered by the magnificent asshole in the back,” Jeff explained and there was a small gasp from the back.

“That’s a bad word!” Abby scolded Jeff and he rolled his eyes.

“Your friend is worse than I am,” he said.

“It’s a still a bad word,” she grumped at him and Rose heard the tell-tale scratching sound of crayons.

“He’ll be meeting up with us later,” Jeff told Rose. “He thought it would probably be best to ditch so he could stretch a little before a populated area. We’re heading up to that dumb volcano, where Thing One and Thing Two found the giant lizard you were looking for. I can’t even pronounce its name, but hey, giant lizard number two seems to know giant lizard number one so we’re still going there. How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been hit by a truck,” she said. “But at least I remember everything now. I don’t even want to know what he did to me.”

“Good,” he said and leaned back against the seat, stretching. “I don’t want to explain it.”

Rose saw Tim looking back at her curiously before slipping his mask on his face. She ignored him, still not ready to talk to him after what happened.

Although it seemed like Jeff wanted to talk more, he quickly fell asleep, obviously not having slept through the previous night. Still ignoring Tim, Rose alternatively looked out the window the changing landscape and checked on Abby, who doodled and colored all over the books Jeff bought her, seemingly uncaring that the few words in the books were in Spanish. Rose idly wondered if SCP had started schooling her or not.

The landscape was surprisingly green to Rose, who had been raised on the impression that Mexico alternated between jungle and desert. She could see the snow capped volcano in the near distance, its base covered with a black forest.

Rose looked to the front as the hooded proxy started to brake, gently this time. The lizard creature sat on his haunches like a dog in the middle of the dirt road. Rose watched as he darted around the van, its movements between a komodo dragon and some sort of mammalian predator, like a wolf. The lizard himself wasn’t entirely reptilian in nature, having some sort of hair or main which cascaded over his back and tail.

A strange thing in an even stranger world, by Rose’s standards.

Abby opened the back of the van for the lizard and he climbed in, bowling over the laughing girl. He curled around her, tucking the girls safely against his side. As soon as the back of the van closed, the proxy began to drive again.

“Glad to see you fuckasses were able to follow simple instructions,” the lizard said as he let his head fall between his feet. His tail gently flicked Abby away from his face as she attempted to admonish the lizard for his language.  “How long until we get there?”

“About a half an hour,” the hooded proxy said. “I can’t drive as fast as I could on the other roads. These ones are really shitty, especially going into the forest. Luckily, whoever’s after you guys should have a hell a time getting there too, especially if Typhoeus gets a hint of them coming. If they try to come in via air, he’ll probably just start spitting smoke.”

“Great,” the lizard said, patiently allowing Abby to draw a pink flower underneath his eye. “Wake me up when we get there.”

It was an odd combination, seeing the lizard and girl together. Rose had to wonder why he’d taken Abby with him when he’d escaped wherever he was being held before.

Although the road was bumpy on the way up to the volcano, especially after the proxy left the main road,  most of the occupants save Rose and the hooded proxy fell asleep. Tim’s head drooped and eventually fell against the window. After coloring on the lizard’s face for a while, Abby simply curled up and fell asleep against the lizard’s side, holding his tail like a teddy bear.

Rose almost fell asleep herself several times, but she kept seeing shapes in the woods which jerked her brain back into consciousness. Just as she finally fell asleep for the last time, the van slowed to a hasty stop. Not for the first time that day, a monster blocked the path of the van.

This time, however, it happened to be a minotaur.

 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to the-writer-with-the-magic-quill. Thank you for being an awesome follower and encouraging me throughout the progress of this fic. Here's to you!
> 
> Please see my tumblr (llamastheflying) for information about this chapter and why it took so long to get written!~

The Minotaur, perhaps, could be placed as the figurehead of ancient mythology though his place was among the Greeks. Highly recognizable and symbolic of man's follies, the half-man, half-bull and his legend spread to nearly facet of fantasy.

As the beast's nostrils flared as he stared down the occupants of the van, Rose supposed there was probably a very good reason his myth survived and was thrust into the spotlight. The bull tugged at a metal collar around his neck before theatrically dragging a hoof back twice against the ground. She and the hooded proxy shared a look of utter disbelief before the Minotaur charged at the van. The van jolted as he collided with it, waking up the sleeping occupants. As the exterior of the van crumpled like tin foil under the Minotaur's fingers, 682 grabbed Abigail and burst out through the back of the van.

The Minotaur growled viciously and tossed the van away, causing it to roll over on its side, before charging after the giant lizard. Rose's head smacked against the window and she groaned. If she came out of this excursion with minimal brain damage, it would truly be a miracle. Blood trickled down the side of her face and she wiped at it before looking around.The others were no better off. Tim and Jeff dangled from their seat belts, which probably saved them from sustaining head injuries like Rose but ensured bruised or broken ribs. The hooded proxy seemed to be unconscious.

Jeff carefully unhooked his seat belt and clambered out of the van before holding out a hand to Rose, who shakily took it. Tim tried shaking his fellow proxy awake but failed. He hooked his arms around the other's torso and hauled him out of the van before rolling him over onto his side and checking his pulse. Rose watched in horror as the two monsters brawled. 682 sank his teeth into the Minotaur's arm and was waved wildly through the air as the Minotaur attempted to shake him off. Some part of Rose’s mind, frightened into stupidity, giggled as the giant lizard with flowers drawn across his head kept its jaw firmly clamped down onto a giant bull. Finally, the Minotaur gripped one of 682’s legs and ripped it free with a sick pop. Rose winced at the sound of tearing skin and the roar which followed it. 682’s jaw loosened and he dropped to the ground.

“Is he gonna be okay?” a voice asked quietly beside her and Rose realized Abby had made her way over to van. Scrapes and dirt covered her arms and there were twigs in her dark hair. “I don’t want to go back to the Foundation. Am I gonna have to?”

“I don’t know,” she told the small girl and knelt down to reach out for her. “What happened? You’ve got scratches all over you.”

“He tossed me aside when that guy charged us,” Abby said. “I don’t think he meant for me to be hurt, though.”

“I don’t think he did either,” Rose told the girl as she ran her hands up and down her arms. Nothing seemed to be broken, thankfully. Abby reached up to touch Rose’s forehead and instantly drew back her hand, now stained red.

“Are you gonna be okay?” she asked. “You’re bleeding.”

“Maybe,” Rose said as she picked up Abby and placed the small girl on her hip. Jeff raised his eyebrows at her. “Probably.”

Not for the first time, Rose felt totally helpless as she watched the two monsters fight. There wasn’t much to do, she thought as 682 smacked the Minotaur backwards with his tail, when you were just a puny human in a world full of monsters. Hierophant or not, it seemed as though she was as useless as ever. Nothing could stop the titanic feud before her.

Nothing, it seemed, except the shadows of the forest itself. Black tentacles shot out from the shadows of the pine trees and wrapped around the two combatants before flicking the two away from each other.

“Enough,” Slenderman said as he emerged from the shadows. “Your fight will attract unnecessary attention. Have you no intelligence at all?”

682 reluctantly drew back toward the trees, but the Minotaur merely grinned.

“Too late,” he coughed out, spitting out blood onto the ground before him. Rose heard a crack of a stick behind her before something wrapped around her neck and she froze. From the corner of her eye, she saw someone in black approach and extend a hand towards Abby. She tightened her grip around the child in response and tried, in vain, to shift her body away from the figure. The hold around her neck, which she figured was due to an arm at this point, tightened warningly.

Rose watched as Slenderman peered around curiously to where figures were emerging from the treeline. For the most part, they seemed unconcerned by him except for two which approached him with weapons which crackled with electricity. They stopped a few yards away from him, cautiously watching him as he stared back at them. The rest of the black clad figures, which Rose could see were clearly human at this point, approached 682. The Minotaur, which was completely ignored, stood up on wobbly hooves.

“Nothing personal, man,” he addressed 682 in a gravely voice, “other than the time you tried to eat me.”

“You’ll wish I had succeeded, fuckass,” 682 snapped as he backed away from the men surrounding him, hissing when one got too close.

“Silence, 682,” one of the men said from the middle of the group surrounding the lizard. “We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Which is it going to be?”

“Fuck off, Hitchens,” the lizard snarled. “If we do this any way at all, it’s going to end with most of you fuckers dead. This time, though, I’ve got back up.”

“I hope you’re not counting me as this so-called ‘back up’,” Slenderman said dryly, still seemingly relaxed despite the weapons trained on him.

“And what if I am?” 682 said, snapping at a figure who attempted to approach him.

“I don’t know who we’re dealing with at the moment, so it would seem unwise to ally myself with a potential idiot,” Slenderman replied before turning his attention back to the agents. “If I could enquire as to who your employer might be?”

“Sorenson, Carter, you aren’t cleared to tell anything to that creature,” Hitchens hissed. “Our mission is to contain and return 682 and 053 to the facility as well as to neutralize any witnesses.”

“Hey now,” Rose heard Jeff object from her side. “We don’t have anything to do with this. That god damn lizard hijacked our van on the way here.”

The agent turned around and gave him a harsh smile.

“Doesn’t matter,” Hitchens said.

“Give it a rest, Hitchens,” came a new voice. A man with short, greying hair with rectangular glasses sitting at the end of his nose entered the area with a new team of agents. He gave a nod to the Minotaur, which was returned with a grin. “There was nothing in your orders about that. I know that for fact, I wrote them. I had accounted for the fact that there would probably be anomalies, given the circumstances of 682’s containment breach. You would do well in the future to completely read your reports and curb your violent tendencies. Not everything requires a gun. You ought to know better, working for this Foundation as long as you have. 682, always a pleasure to see you.”

“Fuck you too, Doctor,” 682 grumbled. as the man approached Slenderman and extended a hand. “You seem to be a reasonable fellow. The Slenderman, right? Please forgive our overly enthusiastic agents. You could say they enjoy their job, despite the hazards. I’m Doctor Alto Clef, researcher with the SCP Foundation.”

Slenderman cautiously took the researcher’s hand, dwarfing it with his own as he shook it. Still, though, the agents did not relax. Rose hoped they would soon, as her neck was starting to hurt. At least they hadn’t tried to take Abby, she thought.

“For now, our goal is to contain 682 and 053,” Clef said, “and while standard procedure is to eliminate witnesses, you and your friends are hardly our ordinary witnesses.” His eyes wandered over the group by the van, and Rose recoiled inwardly as they lingered on her. It was as though he knew by simply looking at her that she wasn’t as normal as her appearance belied. If only she’d known that herself before going on this entire misadventure.

“I must insist in a change of your plans, Doctor Alto Clef,” Slenderman said as he drew himself back up to his full height. “You see, we have not quite finished with 682, as you call him.”

“I assume you are not using the majestic ‘we’, Slenderman,” Clef said as he continued to examine the group. “Who else, besides this motley crew you have here? Perhaps we can reach a compromise.”

“Doctor--” Hitchens started, still looking back over his shoulder at the odd couple, but Clef held up a hand.

“Enough, Hitchens,” the doctor ordered. “Believe or not, I am acting on the authority of the Foundation as a whole right now. While I do understand your distress, as we do not usually negotiate with that which we aim to contain, the situation which has arisen from the Pacific Ocean leaves the Foundation grasping for straws and on unsure ground. We would do well to utilize our resources to their fullest extent. Gentlemen, you may lower your weapons. You may release them as well, I don’t think they’ll be much of a threat with all of you here.”

The two agents nearest to Slenderman reluctantly lowered their weapons, the crackle of electricity cutting out suddenly. Hitchens did not seemed pleased, but he turned back to 682, weapon still trained on the lizard. The arm around Rose’s neck released and she curled slightly forward around Abigail as her free hand flew up to her neck to touch it gently quietly. Her bruises were never going to fade at this rate. Jeff took a few cautious steps toward her under the watchful eyes of the agents.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, one of his hands resting on the small of her back.

“I’ve been better,” Rose replied, “but at least I don’t have an arm around my neck.”

“Necessary procedure, miss,” one of the agents said apologetically.

“Keep your damn yaps shut,” Hitchens barked. “I swear to God, the next man who opens his mouth is going to have a one way ticket into 173’s chamber. Alone.”

All of the agents present visibly cringed.

“That’s a little cruel, Hitchens,” 682 remarked. “That thing’s fucking abnormal.”

“For fuck’s sake, you’re god damn abnormal, 682,” Hitchens snapped back. “Now shut up.”

Seeing as the side conversation had finally ceased, Slenderman turned his full attention to the small doctor in front of him.

“Yes, doctor, we are not alone in our endeavours,” Slenderman said cautiously. “What do you propose? We are less alone than you think and you have found yourself in the hunting grounds of a very large predator indeed, to which you are but a mouse.”

Rose struggled to keep her footing as the ground groaned and heaved beneath her feet. Jeff and the proxies seemed relatively undisturbed by the small earthquake, but the doctor and his agents were not as unaffected.

“What the hell was that?” she asked Jeff, shushing Abby at her insistence of “That’s a bad word!”

“Your favorite giant, winged snake,” he replied with a wolfish grin. “Weren’t you paying any attention to those damn pins you put on the map or were you just bullshitting the entire time?”

Clef’s head whipped around at that.

“Giant winged snake?” he quizzed. “Do you mean a dragon? Or the Quetzalcoatl?”

“The Quetzalcoatl, in some languages,” Slenderman answered for Jeff, “but he is, for what you ought to care about at the moment, very territorial and unwelcoming to visitors. Perhaps you ought to negotiate your compromise quickly, Doctor Alto Clef.”

To the surprise of all, the Minotaur spoke up.

“Doctor, you’d better do something fast,” he told the doctor. “If it’s who I think it is, we need to move quickly. Typhoeus does not suffer fools, especially when they are as deep in his territory as we are. My own encounters with him have...not been pleasant.”

“What he’s really saying is that Typhoeus is more than a little temperamental,” Jeff told Rose.

“Sounds more than a little like you,” she said cheekily back to him, and he pouted. Tim snickered behind them and Jeff snapped, “Shut up, asshole!”

Rose watched as Dr. Clef inwardly debated the situation, obviously scrambling. Finally, he looked back up at the tall being.

“You may keep 682 and 053 for now,” he told Slenderman, holding up a hand to silence the loud protests from all of the agents. “We do not have the resources nor organization to tackle the threat which lurks here, due to the circumstances surrounding what happened in the Pacific Ocean. There are more hostile and less controlled entities than 053 and 682 which are on the loose right now, and 682 seems to be somewhat...contained with your presence. However, we would like to meet to renegotiate this arrangement. Are you aware of where Puerto Vallarta is?” Slenderman slightly inclined his head. “Good. We’ll meet there, at the Malecon Boardwalk in two days. Hopefully we’ll be slightly more organized, slightly less aggressive,” he shot a look at Hitchens, “and in an overall better place to discuss this situation. We will retreat for now, but I only ask you keep 682 under control and 053 safe. Is this agreeable?” Slenderman nodded once. “Good. Men, we’re retreating.”

“I think you’re fucking crazy, Clef,” Hitchens grumbled. “You heard him, men, let’s get out of here.”

The black agents melted back into the shadows of the forest. Hitchens reluctantly fell back to Clef’s side and they walked back past the treeline. Before turning to join them, the Minotaur made a rather rude gesture towards 682, who returned the sentiment with a hiss. Finally, when it seemed all of the SCP agents disappeared, Rose felt her legs give out beneath her. As her knees hit the ground, Jeff’s hands slid under her arms and Abby wiggled free from her hold to dash over to 682. She rested back against his chest as she watched Abby tried to wrap her small arms around 682’s head. The lizard sighed dramatically as he leaned down further so she could hug him, carefully balancing on three legs. Rose noted the fourth was now a miniature leg, seemingly growing and expanding by the second.

“Are you going to be alright?” Jeff asked again and Rose let her head loll back against his shoulder. In the first calm moment in what seemed like forever, her adrenaline rush was finally wearing off. She wasn’t alright. She never had felt so weary in her life, so tired that she couldn’t even move if she wanted. Pain resonated down her neck and spine, reaching out with webbing fingers to every bit of her body. Rose felt the dampness of the forest floor seeping through the hospital pants and she shivered.

“No,” she simply said and closed her eyes as Jeff’s arms wrapped around her waist. He sighed.

“If you’d said anything else, I would have called you a liar,” he told her and leaned his head against hers.

“Then why did you ask, if you knew what the answer was going to be?” she mumbled.

“Probably because I didn’t know what else to say,” Jeff whispered in her ear and Rose shivered again. “I’m just glad you’re safe, finally. These past two weeks have been crazy.”

“Hey love birds, it’s time to retreat into Mount Doom,” 682 and they both started. “Ready to simply walk into Mordor?”

“I’m not sure if I can simply walk at all,” Rose told Jeff and he smirked at her before lifting her up.

“That’s what I’m for, duh.”

 

Their small group wound down and around through red volcanic rock tunnels until Rose felt as though her eyes were spinning in their sockets from it all. She watched the lines of magma in the wall, impossibly staying in place while lighting their way through the volcanic passages. However, the rocking of Jeff’s steady steps and the small sounds of sharp rock crunching underfoot quickly had her eyelids closing, sending Rose into a light doze.

They fluttered back open when the sound of smooth scales against rock echoed through the tunnels. While Rose had been shivering outside, the air around her was now uncomfortably hot and she could see why. The tunnels had opened up into a wide room, lit only by a pool of red hot magma on the opposite side from where they stood. She watched as the shadows writhed from endless coils and a flurry of wings as a serpentine head rose up to cast a long shadow across the ground. Molten gold eyes stared at the group.

“You have returned,” Typhoeus’ hisses echoed from the darkness, “and you have brought an old friend. Behemoth, Kujata, you are an entirely unexpected surprise. What drives you to seek sanctuary in my territory, brother?”

682’s head bowed, humbled for once.

“If not for my own sorry hide, then for hers,” he admitted as he gently shook Abby from his back. She slid down and landed giggling, unphased by the giant serpent before her. “You were right in that having children changes you.”

“She is yours then?”

“In a way,” 682 said, “in that she has no one else and probably never will. Neither do I, so we make god damn fine pair.”

“You’re being awful about bad words today!” Abby said while trying to push against 682 and Typhoeus snorted.

“I never thought I’d see the day where you were lorded over by a child, friend,” he told 682. “You are welcome...for now.”

The serpent swung his head low so near to Rose she could make out the green sheen of his intricate scales. He looked her straight in the eye.

“And who might this be?” he asked. “The most unremarkable of you all, but there’s perhaps more to you than meets the eye, yes?”

While Rose thought she had done admirably throughout the day, her body, much to the disappointment of her brain, finally had enough of giant lizards and strange monsters and her consciousness dipped into darkness, all the while haunted by a gold reptilian eye.

 

 


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to averageapplepie! Probably my second most active follower, she's got a great blog which inspires me to keep writing. Thank you!
> 
> Please see post chapter notes over at my tumblr. :)

To be honest, hanging out in a lair inside of a potentially active volcano wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, or so Jeff thought. He wondered if Typhoeus had gotten the idea from the villains in nearly every cartoon ever produced, or if he was just his own bad stereotype.

For one, there was the god damn rocks and sand that got into everything. No matter how many times he shook out his socks and shoes, there seemed to be an endless amount of sharp red sand that crept back into them. He tried going barefoot, but after only a few steps, he was pretty sure there were rocks embedded permanently into his feet. Of course, when he went to put his shoes and socks back on, the fucking sand had found its way into them. Again.

The walls weren’t much better, he found, as he tried to lean back against them, only to have his arms scraped to high hell. He’d been hoping they were made of cool obsidian. Instead, they seemed to be made of some porous rock which trapped the heat in itself. Grumbling, Jeff sat on the ground and leaned forward onto his knees. Thankfully, Rose still wore his hoodie as she slept in the sleeping bag beside him, so he didn’t have try to take that off and find sand and rock trapped in it as well.

The heat was probably the next worse thing. While there wasn’t an exposed magma pool in the small chamber he was in, Jeff still found himself with a layer of sweat covering his entire body. The entire mountain just seemed to radiate heat, and while that was all fine and well for the giant snake splashing around in the magma lake like a demented-fucking-robin in bird bath, their group, Jeff included, was miserable.

At least Rose seemed content, he thought as he gently ran a hand through her hair. She definitely looked like the hell she’d been through in her absence, bruised and cut and nearly ghost like with how pale she was. Jeff honestly had no idea how she’d survived being thrown off the Flying Dutchman when the ship had been rammed by some eldritch creature which looked as though some bat and squid had way too much to drink one night. As Davy Jones shouted orders to his crew, Jeff attempted to jump after her but a few of Jones’ sailors had grabbed him before he could and he was forced to watch as Rose was swallowed by the waves. It’d nearly broken what little sanity he had.

Frustrated, Jeff got up while trying to make as little noise as possible so he wouldn’t wake Rose. It was easier said than done, with how loud the volcanic rock was under his shoes. Thankfully, though, she didn’t stir.

Jeff’s thoughts lead him into the maze of tunnels which were thankfully empty and silent at the moment. From what he’d seen in his short stay here before they’d gotten a lock on Rose’s location, Typhoeus’ children roamed the mazes at their leisure and one could never be sure if there’d be a lion or chimaera around the next corner.

His thoughts filled the gaps of silence in the halls as his feet scuffed against the ground. He’d never forgotten what Rose asked their first night aboard the Flying Dutchman, and the answer to it haunted him ever since she’d asked him. Yes, he was afraid of the so-called “bigger sharks” out there, if only for the preservation of his own skin, and the war as well for the same reason.

What Rose didn’t know is the war also meant the possibility of losing her, of losing everyone he knew at the moment. While a loner in his own right (and he swore he’d be back on his own after this god damn war), Jeff couldn’t help but be attached to BEN, to Jack, to Slenderman. They weren’t close, and Jeff still didn’t particularly like them or consider them friends, but there was still some amount of camaraderie as they fought to preserve their lives and stories against Zalgo. It was like some weird family where everyone hated each other and wanted to murder each other, but by god if anyone else who wasn’t apart of their fucked up family touched one of them, there would be hell to pay. He was afraid of being the last one, of being alone as he stared Zalgo in the face with no hope at all, of being prey and helpless.

He was afraid of dying like Jane. She died as prey instead of the predator he’d made her into, helpless, alone, afraid, running from one predator into the jaws of another. He at least owed it to her to win this god damn war so none of them would have to be prey again as long as their tales survived. The Leviathan had told him to forgive himself for what he’d done and to move on, but he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to do that.

Jeff never thought he would ever feel as helpless as he did when the police took Liu, who’d always been his safety net. As a nightmare lurking in the shadows and in the unsolved homicides sections in newspapers across the nation, he’d never had to before this.

He kicked the dirt roughly, sending a spray of rock and sand into the air, before turning around to retrace his steps. He’d lost a lot already in this war: the pride that came with surviving on his own, the last remnant of his past life, and any chance of being normal. At least, he thought, he’d gained one thing, though he’d probably lose her as well.

Surprisingly, the voice of the Kuchisake-onna had been quiet throughout most of the past two weeks, only piping up when his realized helplessness roiled sickly in his gut. He knew it was just another handhold for her to take control, so he’d avoided thinking about Rose’s question until now. He didn’t need to lose control of himself now, of all times. Even now, he heard a quiet whispering in his head, gaining strength whenever doubt twisted his stomach particularly hard. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about the old crone in the past few weeks. In some ways he understood why she decided to take up residence in his head. While he’d always had temper issues, his past life was relatively normal. It was as he’d told Rose: everyone in this stupid shadow world craved normality, so what  better way to achieve it than to take up a host who was normal? Sure backfired on you, he thought at the old crone and received a grumble in response.

As Jeff entered the carved out room where he and Rose had been staying, he immediately noticed the sleeping bag was empty and felt his stomach clench from panic. Just as he turned to run, a woman’s face peered from around the corner.

“She woke up while you were gone,” she said as her body fully came around the corner, revealing her true identity as one of the sphinxes that roamed the volcano. “My sisters took off with her to clean her up in one of the hot springs deeper in the volcano. She’ll be back later after they’re done with her, so just chill out. Your buddies are hanging around in the main chamber if you’re looking for company.”

With that the sphinx flounced off, obviously too high on her ego cloud to come down to deal with a lesser mortal. Jeff rolled his eyes. The holier-than-thou attitude of many of Typhoeus’ children made him want to punch something. Deciding he had nothing better to do while Rose was away, he headed for Typhoeus’ chamber although no one looked especially lively when he walked in. The proxies were tucked into one corner away from the magma playing what appeared to be poker with the giant lizard as their boss seemed to be conversing quietly with Typhoeus whose head rested on the edge of the magma lake. In another part of the chamber, the Wild Hunt rested with their backs against their mounts, hungrily eying the Cadmean Vixen that wandered past them. The proxies had shed their usual jackets due to the extreme heat, even the hooded one. Their hair was plastered to their foreheads as they threw their cards in.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you without that stupid mask-thing,” Jeff told the normally hooded proxy as he plopped down beside them. Jeff was awarded with a nervous look from the proxy as he scooted farther away from the killer.

“Fuck off, Jeff,” the masked one, Tim, said. Jeff grinned.

“Whoa there, who pissed in your cheerios this morning, sunshine?” he sassed. “I was just remarking that I’d never seen the rat without his stupid hood. About time he took it off. So, how’s rehab treating you?”

Tim glared and started to get up but the other proxy grabbed him. The giant lizard watched on in amusement.

“Tim, it’s not worth getting in a fight with him,” he said. “Just sit down.”

“Shut up, Brian,” Tim snapped. “I’ve seriously had enough of his shit.”

He lunged and Jeff’s back hit the ground. Jeff gleefully fought back, swinging his fist at the proxy and smirked when it connected with the proxy’s face with a crunch. The proxy rolled off him with a groan as he clutched his face. Jeff cocked his fist back again, but a sharp hiss of static interrupted him.

“Timothy, Jeffrey, enough,” Slenderman scolded, his annoyance clear. “Save your energy for Puerto Vallarta instead of wasting it beating on each other.”

“They never grow out of it, you know,” Typhoeus remarked. “None of my sons have. If none of them have bruises, then something’s wrong.”

Jeff reluctantly rocked on his heels and proffered his hand to the fallen proxy. However, he knew something was immediately wrong when the proxy’s eyes rolled back into his head.

“Tim?” the other proxy asked as he stood up. “Tim, are you okay? Fuck!”

The masked proxy’s limbs suddenly started to jerk and twitch wildly. Jeff reached out to hold the proxy down, but a hand clamped down around his wrist.

“Don’t do that,” the hooded proxy, Brian, told Jeff. “You’ll either hurt him or yourself. We just have to wait it out.”

As Brian shoved his hoodie under Tim’s head, Slenderman appeared by Jeff’s side, saying nothing but Jeff got the feeling of remorse and sadness from him.

“What the fuck was that?” Jeff asked as the jerking stopped.

“It’s a side effect of...being a proxy, one none of us have ever been able to control,” Brian said as he carefully rolled the unconscious proxy onto his side. “Some call it Slender sickness. It really just appears to be a regular seizure most times, so we can control it by taking epilepsy pills.”

“So why did he have one then?”

“It just sometimes happens, even with the pills,” the proxy explained, “though...some of my pills have gone missing lately. I thought I just counted wrong, but now I think he’s been taking some. Tim’s probably been out for a while and just didn’t want to admit he needed them, or didn’t trust himself to get more without relapsing.” Brian looked up at Slenderman. “We need to get more. I think I might have a written prescription in my bag, but if I run out there’s the potential that both of us will be useless.”

Slenderman seemed to think for a moment as he knelt down beside the fallen proxy.

“I was not planning on either of you accompanying me to Puerto Vallarta,” he said, “especially as Timothy still seems irritable and uncontrollable at best because of his withdrawal. However, I think it best both of you come with now. You will be responsible for him. Do not make me dispose of him if he proves to be a further liability by drawing Zalgo’s attention with his stupidity. As of lately, we have been walking on eggshells in an attempt to keep our location and motives secret. I do not wish to lose such a valuable asset, Brian.”

“What about me?” Jeff demanded. “And what about Rose? You can’t just leave us here. I feel like I’ll go nuts if I have to stay here, and Rose has to come with because she’s that...thing the Leviathan said she was. It’s her job to remember and record all this, right?”

Slenderman sighed.

“If you take one of them, if you have to take all of them,” Typhoeus quipped from the magma lake as he rolled onto his back, wings splaying out into the molten rock.

“It seems I have no choice, then,” Slenderman said as one of Typhoeus’ tails flicked magma at 682, who had been creeping around the edge of the chamber towards one of the tunnel exits. The lizard hissed and grumbled before disappearing quickly down a tunnel and Typhoeus chuckled. “Old grump, that one. He’s never been much for jokes.”

“You just threw lava at him,” Jeff pointed out, though he’d laughed at 682’s reaction too, and Typhoeus trained golden eyes on him. “I’d be a little pissed too.”

Typhoeus shrugged his wings and spread them out suddenly sending magma flying across the lake before sinking back down into the lava, obviously irritated.

“He’ll get over it,” the snake grumbled. “It’s not like it would have hurt him permanently.”

“See, this just proves that you’re more like him than you think,” said a new voice and Jeff looked over to see Rose exit another tunnel with his hoodie folded up in her arms and escorted by several sphinxes. “You love picking on other people and get grumpy when no one else thinks it’s all fun and games. What happened to Tim?”

Jeff watched as she knelt down next to the masked proxy with jealousy twisting at his stomach, though he knew there wasn’t really any reason to be jealous. She looked a lot better, especially a lot happier after a bath, he thought as Brian explained again what had happened. Mottled green and purple bruises ran down the left side of her face and circled around her neck before disappearing under her collar. Her now wet and braided hair was no longer matted with blood and was draped over her right shoulder, though she’d obviously left a lock of it out to try to cover the bruises on her face. But what she wore…

“Why did you dumbasses give her a sweater?” Jeff snapped as he stormed over to a nearby sphinx, who lay with her sisters in a pile near the lake. “We’re in a fucking volcano!”

“It wasn’t our choice,” the sphinx said lazily as she rolled onto her back, seemingly basking in the heat from the magma pool. “She asked us for one. Not everyone wears their scars like war paint like you do, dipshit. Have you ever considered perhaps she’s ashamed that she’s been hurt like that? That she thinks she’s weak for not being able to protect herself?”

Jeff froze and looked over his shoulder to where Rose stared at him like a deer in headlights, obviously having heard the exchange. She quickly looked back to the hooded proxy and answered something he’d asked. No, he hadn’t considered that. To him, Rose’s bruises and cuts were a sign of everything she’d been through so far, of what she was strong enough to survive. More than anything, it meant she was strong enough to be what he needed in this war, what they all needed. She wasn’t a china doll which could be easily shattered if one let go of her.

Rose obviously didn’t see it the same way though, Jeff thought as he watched her tug down the sleeves self consciously over her bruised and scratched hands.

“Boys are so dumb,” the sphinx remarked as she yawned. “You never see anything unless it’s pointed out to you.”

Jeff crossed the chamber again to where the masked proxy was starting to stir, ignoring the sphinx as she called after him, “You boys also don’t know how to let things go for a better time!” Rose stiffened as he sat beside her, obviously expecting to be interrogated or picked at. He sighed.

“Can I talk to you?” he asked her softly as the proxy rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows. Before she could answer, a great howl echoed through one of the tunnels. Like dogs summoned by a doorbell, the animals of the wild hunt were on their feet in an instant. Dogs and goats swarmed down a tunnel with the silvery vixen on their heels to greet the newcomer. Seemingly, the fanged horses had more dignity as they merely tossed their heads and stayed by their riders, who merely sighed and shook their heads.

The visitor was apparent immediately. Another of Typhoeus and Echidna’s children, a giant two headed dog which greatly resembled a blood hound, squeezed out of the entrance tunnel holding its prize above the mad swarm of animals as they tried to snatch it from their jaws. Or rather, them, as Jeff quickly saw.

“BEN?” he asked, incredulous. “What the fuck are you doing here? Aren’t you still supposed to be up in Montana right now?”

The elfish man offered him a toothy grin as dog drool ran across his face before dripping onto the floor. Jeff couldn’t quite see who or what was in the other head’s jaw though, or whether or not they were still alive.

“Well, there’s a slight problem with that,” BEN said. “You know, seeing as the estate’s a great pile of ash now.”

Typhoeus rose from his pool and gave Slenderman a look, which the tall being ignored.

“I told you,” he said. “If you take one, you’ll end up taking them all, one way or another. They always find a way.”

 


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to zayphora on tumblr.

If there was anything BEN could have said to piss Slenderman off the most, telling him his estate burned down was probably at the top at that list. While everyone else shrank back from the entity as tendrils exploded from the back of his suit, BEN just lay limply in the dog’s jaw, grinning, and totally uncaring of Slenderman’s growing wrath. Jeff shook his head. Fearless dipshit, that one.

“What did you do, Benjamin?” Slenderman demanded tersely, tendrils twitching agitatedly around him.

“Can you guys talk about this later?” another voice chimed in as the person in the other head’s jaws flailed. “Preferably after this dog has dropped me? Hey, giant snake thing, is this your dog? Can you have him drop me please? His slobber has completely soaked through my clothes.”

“That dog is my son,” Typhoeus snapped. “Orthus, drop those cretins. What have I told you about putting strange things in your mouth? You don’t know where they’ve been.”

The dog obediently dropped its prizes, both men groaning as they hit the floor. The crowd of animals swarmed over them.

“Jackson, Benjamin, I’m waiting,” Slenderman said.

Eyeless Jack groaned and stood up unsteadily. He was, as he said, completely covered with dog slobber. He partially lifted up his mask and wiped his face before pushing away the many animals crowded around him.

“Son, right...” Jack said. “It wasn’t BEN, as surprising as it may seem. Your buddy Splendorman showed up again and torched the place with a few of his weird zombie minions.”

Slenderman’s tendrils drooped.

“He has returned already?” Slenderman asked. “What of the other occupants of the estate? Have they escaped?”

“Most did I think,” BEN said, “but I’m not sure who all survived. Seedeater’s outside somewhere gallivanting in the forest, Silver’s in his cartridge in my pocket, moping as usual...We weren’t able to save much. Pretty much only Rose’s map, really. We decided to start off by coming down here. If this didn’t work out, we were going to throw Seedeater in the ocean as bait for that Leviathan thing.”

“You were going to throw Seedeater into the ocean,” Jack corrected as he fished the folded piece of paper out of the backpack slung over his shoulder, walked over and handed it to Rose, “and I was going to use you as bait instead so I didn’t have to listen to your constant bitching. Seedeater is far better company than you are, princess.”

BEN shot Jack a dark look and the cannibal shrugged. “It’s true.”

Jeff watched as she carefully unfolded the slightly damp map halfway, sadly tracing the few remaining pins and threads stuck on the map. As Slenderman grilled Jack and BEN more for details, Rose asked, “Do you guys still have my backpack? My laptop should be in there and I can probably reconstruct this if we need.”

“Yeah, we do,” Brian said. “I think the boss had it when we rendezvoused here. You should ask him about it after he’s done interrogating those two.”

“What the fuck is going on?” the masked proxy asked, obviously still not tracking well, and his partner sighed.

“Have you been taking your pills?” he asked and Tim sullenly looked off to where Slenderman stood talking with the newcomers. “Tim? God dammit, he actually threatened to kill you this time. You can’t just stop taking them. I don’t want you to die, you’re the only thing I have left from when we lived in Alabama, when we were shooting that stupid film. I don’t want to have to kill you. I know he’ll make me kill you and if I refuse, he’ll just take control of me and make me watch as I kill you with my own hands.”

The proxy’s eyes seemed shinier as he babbled on, like he was about to cry. Rose looked stricken and more than a little ill. Jeff’s stomach turned as well, but probably for a different reason than Rose’s did. He recognized the sentiment the stupid proxy was going on about. No one had asked to be dragged into this, but he was pretty sure everyone had that one thing they hung onto from their past life. For him, it was Jane. For the proxies, it was each other. If he thought back on it, Silver had another name BEN sometimes called him by when he zoned out and wasn’t paying attention that made him snap back into reality. BEN himself could always be found Minnesota around November, doing nothing except sitting on a dock overlooking a lake with his toes barely in the water and watching the last of the summer’s fireflies dancing over their reflections. Hell, Jack probably had some mummified kidney hanging around that used to belong to his mother or someone, not that Jeff wanted to know. They all had the one thing they couldn’t stand to lose, the last little bit of normal that kept them human.

Finally, the proxy’s blubbering was cut off when Tim’s temper finally snapped. His fist shot out and connected with the other’s jaw.

“Just shut up,” he said as he pulled Brian into a weak one armed hug. “I’m not gonna end up like Jay and others. Like you almost did. I’m getting clean aren’t I?”

“Under duress,” Brian pointed out.

“Shut up,” Tim snapped. “I’ll start taking my pills. I’ve survived this fucker stalking me since I was a kid, I’ll be damned if I die now, so quit worrying. It’s all my fault we’re in this situation anyway, so if anything happens, you’re getting out of this alive, not me.”

Uncomfortable with the sheer amounts of sentimentality and stupidity coming from Slenderman’s henchmen, Jeff tugged on Rose’s sweater sleeve and she flinched.

“I still want to talk with you,” he told her. “Come on, let’s go.”

“But…” she trailed off. It was obvious she was looking for some way to get out of this.

“I don’t think you’ve got any excuses left, darling,” Jeff said. “Come on, we’ll get your bag back from Slenderman on our way out.”

“If she doesn’t want to--” Tim started to say, but Rose shakily held up a hand to cut him off.

“It’s okay,” she said, even though everyone could hear it wasn’t. “I should go. Jeff, at least carry your hoodie.”

He took his hoodie from her and stuffed it under one arm while he held out his hand to her. Rose took it and stood up, wobbling a little. Jeff tightened his grip when she tried to slide her hand out of his. He didn’t want to risk her falling, but he also liked gouging the proxy in the eye. His arm slid around her waist to steady as they walked towards Slenderman. When prodded, the being readily handed over the backpack, seemingly pulling it out of midair before continuing his interrogation of the survivors. Jeff shrugged it on, swatting away Rose’s hand as she tried to grab it from him. As they left to head back for their small chamber, he saw BEN first raise an eyebrow then grin and give him a thumbs up. Asshole.

Neither said anything on as they wandered through the tunnels. His fingers played with the edge of her sweater as his eyes traced the bruises down her neck. She pulled away from him and ignored his gaze to stare at her feet. She seemed almost afraid.

“You don’t have to be ashamed of your bruises, chickadee,” He told her quietly as they entered the small chamber. “Think of them as war paint.”

“It’s hardly a war and more of me just getting beat up,” she mumbled in return before sitting down on the sleeping bag and curling into a ball. “I’m not going to be of any use to you guys if I’m dead, not that I’m much use to you anyways. The Leviathan was wrong. I’m not anything special or unique.”

“You’re not useless—,” he started, but Rose cut him off.

“Seriously?” she snapped. “Name one time I’ve actually done something that matters in this entire stupid thing, war, whatever it is.”

“Well, there’s the map…”

“And anyone else could have done that,” she said. “Even Slenderman, if he actually bothered with it. I’m worse than a god damn protagonist in some sappy vampire novel.”

“He admitted though he doesn’t have the sense of fear you do though,” Jeff stated, “seeing as you are, you know, prey.”

“That makes me feel so much better,” she snarled at him, voice steadily growing louder “because all of you weren’t running like hell to save your hides, right? How does that not make you prey, again? I’m just waiting for you to get it through head that I’m not worth anything to your survival and to wake up with a knife at my throat.”

“Rose…” Jeff said softly and reached for her, but Rose flinched away and jumped to her feet.

“Don’t touch me,” Rose growled.

“Rose, damn it, just listen,” he told her and lunged for her again. She backed farther out of his reach, towards the door.

“Just stop, Jeff!” Rose shouted at him, still backing towards the entrance. “Just stop pretending!” She darted out into the tunnels.

“Rose!” he yelled after her, but she had already disappeared into the maze of tunnels. A noise of absolute frustration and anger clawed its way out of his throat. He lashed out with a clenched fist, hitting the edge of entrance. His hand came back scratched and bloodied from the volcanic rock. Jeff stomped back into the chamber. “God fucking damn it. Why doesn’t she just listen?”

“Smooth, Romeo,” a lazy voice drawled. Jeff turned around to see the sphinx from earlier standing in the entrance to the small chamber, eyebrow raised as she surveyed the enraged killer.

“Fuck off, bitch,” he snapped, fingernails biting into the skin of his palms until he could feel warm blood trickling the already red scratches on his knuckles. “I don’t want to hear it.”

The sphinx ignored him and padded further into the room. “Seriously, though, you’ve got to get that temper under control.”

Jeff growled and reached into his open backpack for a knife before sending it cutting through the air in the sphinx’s direction. She ducked, sliding forward on her front paws as the knife just barely grazed the top of her head, before hissing at him.

“I’m not going to say it again,” he spat at her. “Fuck off.”

“What the hell, man?” she snarled back. “I was actually going to try to help you out of this mess, but fuck that.” With a huff of annoyance, the sphinx turned to leave. Realizing what she had just offered, Jeff scrambled.

“Wait!” he called. “Wait a minute! What do you mean you were going to help?”

Don’t fuck this up, the voice in his head whispered.

Shut up, hag, he thought back at it.

“Oh, so now he wants to listen,” the sphinx sassed before turning around. “I swear, men are such idiots that they can’t recognize a blessing even when it kicks them in the balls. No more knives, and we can talk.”

Some blessing you are, he thought, but kept his mouth shut and nodded.

The sphinx sat on her haunches and gestured with a paw in front of her. Reluctantly, Jeff sat down.

“It’s not just you that’s the problem here,” she started. “You’re all pretty dense when it comes to—Rose was it?—and how she fits into your motley crew. Or rather, how she doesn’t. I’m going to assume she hasn’t always acted this skittish, per se.”

He shook his head.

“So obviously, something pretty big happened and that made her adjust her view of her role in our world, and you morons haven’t caught onto that fact,” the sphinx explained. “It’s like, I don’t know, a gazelle hanging out with a pride of lions while wearing a badge proclaiming it an honorary lion. Then, it sees a lion kill a gazelle and starts getting a little worried, even though its pride is telling it not to. To top it off, boss lion decides to make it clear it’s not going to tolerate any weakness, like what your boss man did back in the main chamber. So now this gazelle’s wondering what the fuck it’s gotten itself into.

“Now, whenever one of the lions, especially one with a short temper and less than average intelligence, approaches it, it’s gonna kind of freak out a little,” she continued, “or maybe more than a little. I would too, if I were that gazelle. You dumbasses haven’t been paying attention, obviously, because something’s happened where Rose is spooked to high hell. Have any idea what that might be?”

Jeff thought of the hospital and grimaced.

“Maybe,” he admitted, “but that doesn’t change the fact I’d never hurt her. She knows that. I wouldn’t let anyone else hurt her either.”

“Does she?” the sphinx asked. “Because to me, you look like a lion with very sharp teeth. Right now, it may seem like she’s a solution to this entire thing for you, but how long is she going to be your meal ticket? She’s probably wondering how long it’s going to take until she goes from being honorary pride member to meat. It sounds like she’s doubting her role in this entire thing, and can you honestly assure her that her role is worth it now? You’ve got powerful allies on your side now, my father included, and it sounds like you’re about to get more. What role does a Hierophant have in this war when she’s already provided all the answers she can?

“Instead of lying to her about what she’s actually worth in this war,” the sphinx said, “maybe you should be considering if she’s more than a means to an end at this point for you. If she’s not…well, you can probably see why she’s so upset.”

The sphinx stood up and stretched, claws extending out and dragging lines into the red floor.

“Just think on it, as much as your little brain can,” she suggested before turning around to leave. Jeff muttered something and she looked back over her shoulder.

“What was that?”

“I said, thank you.”

“Of course,” she said. “Someone’s got to get it through your thick head before that girl gets hurt.”

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to sneebsy over on tumblr. :)

Usually when Jeff tried to hunt someone down, his victim made it easy for him. If they didn’t give themselves away with minute sounds (breathing was never something one could do quietly enough) then their panicked escape always blazed a trail as clear as daylight. In the midst of a murderous (beautiful, the voice in his head whispered) rampage, Jeff found himself to be adept at flushing out his terrified prey, allowing them to meet their unfortunate (but bettering) ends.

This time, though, was different. Either Jeff’s senses weren’t heightened like they usually were in the middle of a hunt or Rose was proving to be a lot stealthier than he’d anticipated. The low rumble of the volcano in the background masked any small noises echoing in the tunnels which could have led to her location. He was also frustrated to discover the wanderings of Typhoeus’ children throughout the tunnels (the damn sphinx included) had covered up any of Rose’s footprints with their own.

Jeff was determined to set things right with her and although the embers of his temper still burned, he steeled himself and chose a direction to start his search. As he stalked down the tunnel away from the main chambers, he absently reached out a hand to drag along the rough walls, but instantly recoiled.

“Fuck!” he snapped as he examined his palm. The crescent moon wounds from his nails biting into his hands earlier had just started to heal, but the rough edges from the volcanic rock on the wall had ripped several of them open even further, prompting thick rivulets of new blood to drip down onto and between his fingers before hitting the already red floor. Jeff forced himself to breathe and reigned in the impulse to punch the wall, reminding himself that it would probably do more harm than good at this point, as well as feeding his already hot temper. He resisted the urge to wipe the blood off onto his hoodie or pants and instead elected to continue further down the twisting tunnel to where he knew there were a few spring fed pools as his blood left a trail behind him. It wouldn’t do his cause any good to look as though he’d mauled something out of anger. His search from Rose would have to wait until he wouldn’t scare her even further.

Resisting the urge to drag the other hand against the wall (no reason to give the sphinx more reason to doubt his intelligence), Jeff picked his way through the tunnels while cradling his injured hand away from his (for once) clean white hoodie until he reached a small chamber. Through either some natural miracle or Typhoeus’ own machinations, there were many chambers with such pools littered throughout the tunnel system, though each one was unique in its own way. Most had pools with volcanic sources, brilliant colors lying under the water’s surface, though the sulfuric smell of their pools was almost unbearable at times.

This particular one was probably meant to act as a mirror of sorts to the giant serpent’s children, though Jeff had no intention of using it as such. The pools in this chamber lacked the hot temperatures and sulfur of the volcanic springs elsewhere in the volcano, so he hoped its cool waters would help soothe his wounded hand as he washed it off. There were three pools arranged in a spiral like terrace, with the largest on the bottom.

Jeff stared at his reflection in the still pool. It was slightly distorted, like an image in an old mirror, but he could still the barely pink twisted scars that curved up from his mouth. The remaining black stitches near his eyes crossed his skin like ugly ink. He ran a tentative hand over the scars, accidentally spreading blood over his face and winced. The sphinx was right. To someone like Rose, he definitely looked like a very dangerous predator. Maybe he shouldn't have shot down Jack so harshly when he offered to help his…appearance. He shook his head at his thoughts. It was a stupid idea. Jack probably wouldn’t really be able to do anything for him and even if he could, would Jeff want him to? And for what purpose? To look normal? He was so far from normal he couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be normal, to not kill or be killed. Better to stay a monster like he was now.

Frustrated by his thoughts, Jeff knelt by the pool and dipped his hand into the water, disturbing the serene water and shattering his bloodied reflection.  He hissed quietly as the cold water surrounded his aching hand and watched as the blood flowed out into the water in swirling clouds, turning the pool pink. With his uninjured hand, he splashed water onto his face and wiped the drying blood away with the back of his hand. He heard a small sound behind him and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see another one of Typhoeus’ annoying children. Instead, he saw Rose standing in the doorway.  Her eyes met his and she quickly looked down at her feet, fingers playing with the ends of her sleeves.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “for running off. And for yelling. And being unreasonable. And—.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I wish you would have told me how you were feeling earlier. I’m not a mind reader, chickadee. As…someone…pointed out to me earlier, I’m not only a guy, but a criminal. I don’t get social cues and hints, if it hasn’t been obvious. I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were so upset earlier. I’ve forgotten what it was like to afraid until _very_ recently.”

He stood up and strode over to where she was still fiddling with the end of her sleeves and reached out to still her fingers. Rose froze and looked up at him through her lashes.

“It’s not fair of me to take this out on you though,” she said quietly. “I just don’t know what to do, though. I’m going to be killed whenever Slenderman figures out I’m useless.”

“It’s not fair,” he agreed, “and I don’t know what to do either, but we’ll figure it out. I won’t let him kill you, I promise. I doubt you would still be here if he ever thought, that at one point, you’d be useless. I also doubt the Leviathan would have told you the information she did if you were ultimately going to end up useless in the end.”

Rose sighed and gently pulled her hands from his. He noticed fresh blood on the ends of her sleeves and winced. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Oops.

“I don’t know if you can keep that promise, Jeff, but we’ll try it,” she said. “I think that any death by Slenderman’s hands would infinitely more merciful than one at Zalgo’s, if my experience at that nightmarish hospital was anything to go by.”

“Maybe, but don’t worry about it, okay?”

She laughed hoarsely.

“I’m going to no matter what,” she said. “It would unrealistic not to.”

Before the conversation could continue any farther, a far off scream shattered the peace between them, echoing down the tunnels. They exchanged a look before Rose tried to run out to the tunnel. Jeff caught her wrist just before she got out of reach and yanked her into the chamber of pools.

“Let me go first,” he said and fished the knife out of his pocket as a glare was shot his way. “I’m armed, you’re not. I doubt you’ve got one of these.”

Not waiting for any further protests, Jeff darted out and made his way to the main chamber with Rose hot on his heels. Another scream, louder and closer this time, met them as they ran down the tunnels. He expected to see some of Zalgo’s goons in the chamber, or even the hyper aggressive soldiers from SCP when they sprinted into the warm light of Typhoeus’ lair.

Instead, he was met with the sight of Jack, laying curled up in a ball on the floor in front of them.  His mask was crooked on his face, allowing Jeff to see an empty eye socket partially rotted out from the black sludge dripping from it. Around and underneath the eye, grey flesh had been burned into ugly reds and pinks, trailing down Jack’s face to where he clutched at his neck. Another strangled scream ripped its way from his throat as Rose rushed to his side, hands hovering Jack’s writhing body as she desperately tried to figure out how to help.

Behind Jack, the two proxies plus Silver, who’d come out of his cartridge in his and Rose’s absence, were piled on top on a struggling BEN, who was violently cursing and trying to throw them off. A jet of fire shot out from one of his hands in a last ditch effort of retaliation before he went still.

Ignoring Jack as another pair of hands would probably just get in the way, Jeff made his way over to the exhausted pile of men. The proxies clambered off and Silver helped BEN get up. One of his hands remained in a white knuckled grip on his friend’s arm, however. BEN sported an impressive swollen eye and his cracked lip, drawn up into a snarl, painted his teeth red. More blood than usual flowed from his eyes and nose, evidence of how aggravated he was.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked the masked proxy.

“A cat fight got out of hand,” Tim said, speaking loudly over BEN’s swearing. “Some…things…were said and BEN decided to try to prove a point.”

“About what?”

“Me,” Silver offered quietly, jerking BEN back as the man tried to lunge forward. “Jack joked that we should have thrown me in as the ocean instead, you know, as bait for the Leviathan. At first, BEN wasn’t upset, he just said that Seedeater should have been thrown in still. But then…BEN, stop it, he had a point.”

He yanked his friend back again, pushing on BEN’s shoulder until he forced to sit down. BEN grumbled something incoherent as he pulled his knees up to his chest and sulked.

“But then, Jack said he was serious,” Silver continued. “He said I was worthless and would only drag us down in the end since I don’t, you know, do much. BEN argued that I’ve got my own part to play in this whole mess and that I can take care of myself. Jack insisted, though, that if he had to, he would kill me. He asked me if I actually wanted to die since I’m so reluctant to do anything and offered to…”

He hesitated for a moment and watched as fire licked up between BEN’s clenched fingers, scorching the red rock beneath his fists.

“…make it painless, right then and there,” Silver said quietly. “BEN pretty much launched himself at Jack, and it started with punches. But then, BEN grabbed Jack’s face and it went downhill from there.”

Looking back at Jack as Rose quickly pushed herself away from the injured man and headed for the pile of backpacks at the edge of the chamber, he could now see that the burn on his face was in the shape of a hand.

“He grabbed his neck next before we managed to pry him off,” Silver said.

“Fucker deserved it,” BEN mumbled before he was kicked in the side by his friend. He groaned and fell over, clutching his side as he gasped for air.

“Shut up, BEN,” Silver snapped. “You know he was right. I’ve been a coward and for the most part, useless. You can’t protect me forever. For all I know, you’ll be killed in this war before I do, though that’s really unlikely. He said it pretty harshly, but I need to start being useful or…or…”

He sighed and plopped onto the ground next to BEN, causing a cloud of red dust to rise up around them. Hearing a pained moan behind him, Jeff turned around and saw Rose kneeling once again by Jack, sleeves pushed up and hands trembling as she took pristine white bandages from the kit she retrieved. Jack stiffly pushed himself into a sitting position and Jeff could hear his hoarse voice direct Rose’s actions as his chest and throat fluttered painfully with swallowed sobs. Jeff had been in his position, this hurt, once or twice and knew the feeling of swallowing sobs and screams if only to preserve what little pride he had left. At least he had someone to help him bandage his wounds though. What Silver said next, though, directed his thoughts to a more present memory though.

“I’ve never belonged in this world from the start, though,” Silver whispered, almost to himself. "I’m not sure what my place in it ever was or what it will be.”

Jeff sighed, still watching Rose.

“None of us ever belonged here, I think,” he said, feeling slightly sick, “some of us less so than others. You’ll find your place eventually.”

“And if I don’t?”

Jeff was silent.

“You will,” BEN answered. “You have. You just don’t see it. You’re my friend.”

He laughed.

“You at least keep me sane,” he said, “and you remind the rest of us of what it’s like to be human. If people don’t like that, well…they’ll have to deal with me. Don’t try to find your place in this world, kid, or you’ll turn out like me. A monster. Value that you’re afraid still.”

Silver obviously wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but he kept quiet.

Slenderman, who had been conspicuously absent during all of this, appeared by Tim’s side as a rumble announced Typhoeus’ emergence from the magma pool.

“Is anything the matter, Timothy?” he queried his proxy. Jeff felt icy dread trickle into his stomach at the question and saw his own fear reflected in everyone else’s faces around the room. The proxy was silent for a moment.

“…Nothing, sir,” he replied quietly. “Just an unfortunate accident, that’s all.”

And in a blink, Slenderman was near the magma pool without a word, and there was a collective sigh of relief. For the first time, Jeff thanked whatever god there was (or wasn’t) that Slenderman was a monster, through and through, and seemed to not understand the tension in the room. Or if he did, then that he simply didn’t care.

Rose helped Jack to his feet and let the tall man lean heavily on her as they walked over to where everyone else was. Tim relieved Rose as they approached, who struggled with Jack’s near deadweight.

“I’m sorry,” was the first thing Jack said. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, or at least in the way I did.”

Silver shrugged and nudged BEN harshly in the side as he snarled at Jack.

“What you said was right,” he said. “I’ve been in this hellish underworld for years. I should be used to it by now, and even if I’m not, then I should buck up and deal with it. But I guess, if I can’t deal with it…”

He let out a shaky sigh.

“…then I’ll let you know if I need your help.”

No one said anything. Jeff discretely watched Rose out of the corner of his eyes, watching her face. He guessed that she was comparing their situations, two too innocent people in a world of nightmares. She picked at her sleeves and then her nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Jeff, did you get blood on my sweater earlier?” she asked and swatted at him. “This was clean!”

He smiled at her innocently while Tim and Silver laughed. BEN and Jack, at least, both cracked a smile. The tension was broken, but the problem still weighed heavily on Jeff’s mind.

When would Rose’s usefulness run out?

 

When would his?


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hint of normalcy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's been a long time coming. See tumblr for more info: llamastheflying.tumblr.com.
> 
> Dedicated to arse-moriendi, if they're okay with it, for being really cool and posting things that get me out of my funk. You're awesome and a huge inspiration, and I hope you know that!

For once, it seemed everything was going to be okay, which was weird with the world being on the verge of destruction.

Well, not that very many people _actually_ knew how much more trouble than usual the world was in.

With the van utterly wrecked and being so far away from Puerto Vallarta, Slenderman had given in and transported all of them to the coast. He'd left 682 and Abby behind, claiming the lizard was too hard to conceal. When her feet finally touched solid ground again and she felt her weight again, she realized they were in a small alley between two buildings, crowded with trash and with clothes lines cross-crossing up above. She'd finally gotten used to the feeling of being ripped through space, managing to not lose what she'd eaten that morning. She could tell by everyone else's faces, though, that she would never quite feel comfortable with it. Only the proxies seemed unaffected.

As Seth heaved in the back of the alley (with BEN watching on with mild amusement and disgust) and everyone else caught their breath, she asked Slenderman, “What now?”

He didn't respond at first and was as unnervingly still as he ever was, a tall statue barely lit by the grey light of the morning. However, when he failed to respond after several beats of her still-racing heart (one, two, three, too fast), Rose looked up at him, still bent over slightly with her hands resting on her knees.

“Slenderman?”

By now, everyone else was looking at Slenderman. Tim had the look on the face that said that he was doing the odd telepathic thing the proxies could do and ignored the sweat that ran down his face and dropped down onto the white mask around his neck. She had no idea what Brian was thinking or doing because his hood was back up, but she was willing to bet it was more of the same.

Finally, a tremor ran through Slenderman and he seemed to straighten up, though he was already standing tall as ever.

“I apologize,” said the static as it crackled softer than ever in her ears, “I... underestimated... the toll on my being transporting all of you would take.”

Next to her, Jeff snorted.

“It really must be the end of the world,” he said, “if he's acting like this. Ouch! Christ!”

His hands flew up to his ears, and Rose swore she could almost hear the harsh shriek of static in his ears.

Slenderman blinked out of existence shortly after with only the promise of meeting up with them shortly before noon lingering in their ears ever hinting that he was there to begin with. Perhaps a little more paranoid than usual, they stuck together as they entered the streets of Puerto Vallarta with the exception of Jack, who stiffly stalked off with only a grumble of something that sounded like food. She tried not to think too hard about it, stomach already roiling from her earlier violation of physics. They told themselves it was protection and that they were scouting out for potential threats before the meet up, but the truth was that the area had probably already been cleared for hours by SCP and the memory of the not-quite-nurses scratching at the windows of the van was still fresh in their minds.

Surprisingly, it was Brian who took the lead and with some searching, found a somewhat decrepit phone booth with a phone book inside that had certainly seen better days. As he carefully thumbed through the decaying pages of the phone book, Rose suddenly found herself grateful for the sweater she wore. Fog still slunk around corners like ferrets and hung in thicker, woolly ropes farther down the street, only just starting to disappear in the dawn's light. It would still probably be hot later in the day (it was Mexico, after all), but for now, she was safely shielded from the world by the overly bulky sweater the sphinxes had found her.

As if sensing her thoughts, Jeff bumped into her lightly as they stood in a semicircle around the phone.

“Doing okay?” he asked. He had his hood pulled up over his face and had acquired scarf which he'd pulled up over his nose (totally manly, he'd assured her), and she knew the sunglasses he'd worn earlier were in his hoodie pocket with his knife.

“Yeah,” she replied as she glanced around. Luckily (or maybe not so much so if SCP was involved), the streets were still abandoned, though it could have been because it was still quite early.

“Kinda looks like something out of a horror movie, huh?”

Rose gave him a flat stare and he grinned, the corners of his scars peeking up above the scarf.

“Okay, yeah, I get it, I'm not funny,” he said. “What do you think, BEN? Think we'll be seeing a Pyramid Head?”

“Don't even joke about that man,” BEN snapped. “Not only because, you know, most of us fit in the category of nightmares but he,” he jabbed a thumb towards Silver, “seems to be able to summon things out of the depths of hell just to fuck with us.”

“That wasn't my fault,” Silver insisted.

“Sure it wasn't,” BEN deadpanned. “You definitely didn't go for looking for all of shit yourself and I didn't totally save your ass.”

Silver and Rose shared a look and Jeff grumbled, unhappy no one was willing to feed into his joking.

In the phone booth, Brian finally seemed to have found what he was looking for and Tim reluctantly handed him quarters over his shoulder as he began to dial. After a few rings, a voice answered and Brian replied in what sounded like Spanish. Rose shot a questioning look at Tim, who shrugged.

“Don't even ask me,” he told her as leaned against the outside of the booth and played with his mask in his hands. “I have no idea. It probably comes with the job.”

Brian hung up the phone before fishing out a pen and jotted something down on the back of his hand. Tim offered him a hand and helped him to his feet.

“So I found a pharmacy kind of nearby, which I think should be our priority to find before the meeting on the boardwalk,” he said, voice muffled by the cloth in front of his face. “I can pick up the Trileptal for Tim and I and we can also pick up other stuff for Jack and Rose.”

Great. She was a priority. She tugged the sleeves down farther though they already covered her hands.

“Maybe we can grab something to eat after that, I don't know,” he continued and looked towards BEN and Silver. “Some of us don't...exactly fit in, so I'm not sure how that's gonna work.”

BEN shrugged, and his body seemed to go out of focus like a heat mirage as his shoulders came back down. He was now wearing a blue hoodie and black jeans with sneakers but most importantly, his hair was brown and his eyes blue instead of black and red.

“Whoa,” Jeff exclaimed and they all took a step back, with the exception of Silver, who seemed relatively unperturbed by his friend's change. “When the hell did you learn to do that?”

He shrugged again.

“Dunno, awhile ago,” he said. “Dude, your turn.”

Seth grimaced at him before his body, too, went out of focus. Unlike BEN, his hair and eyes were dark and his skin tan, and he wore a regular t-shirt.

“You look like you might be able to fit in around here,” BEN remarked as he eyed his friend.

“I'm going to hit you, BEN,” Seth grumbled. “Lead the way, Brian.”

“What? I didn't say anything wrong.”

 

As they travelled through the streets of Puerto Vallarta, Rose was starting to think of it was less decrepit and instead, just well loved like a hand-me-down reused until there was nothing left. Buildings that had obviously belonged to the same families for generations were worn but for the most part, taken care of. Those that had gotten too worn down had been replaced by new that seemed almost out of place, squished between the narrow buildings and entirely too modern.

The fog was starting to lift, but the morning light was still dismally grey and Rose couldn't shake her paranoia. She wasn't quite sure if she felt as if she was being watched or if she was dreading something happening, but she was disquieted by the near silent streets.

The pharmacy was one of the newer buildings in the area, though it appeared to have been built a while back, perhaps in the eighties or nineties. It was starting to acquire its own worn look, different from the buildings which had stood for far longer than it had. Before they reached the location, Brian yanked off the mask covering his face and Tim stashed his own in his pocket. It was an odd attempt at normalcy that didn't sit well with Rose, probably because their group was just so odd to begin with. They all piled into the small pharmacy and an older man with greying hair who sat behind the counter raised a very thick eyebrow before greeting them. She felt her face heat up under his scrutiny. Brian made a beeline for the counter and everyone dispersed, leaving her standing awkwardly at the entrance until Jeff grabbed her wrist and tugged her away towards the magazines.

“You're blocking the door.”

“Well, I'm sorry that I can't act as nonchalant as the rest of you,” she mumbled at him as she dragged her eyes across the bright covers. Her stomach twisted as she recognized one that had been given to her in the hospital, albeit very modified.

“It's the philosophy of walk, don't run,” he told her. “If you're looking for trouble or if it's looking for you, don't set yourself apart from the crowd. Are you feeling okay?”

She shook her head, stepping back from the magazines and reaching behind her to the shelves to steady herself as her head spun.

“You know, I think I'm feeling a little claustrophobic,” she said. “I'm going to step outside for a bit.”

“No way,” Jeff said and shook his head.

“There's just a bench out there and you'll be able to see me through those,” Rose said and nodded towards the barred windows. “I'll be fine.”

She stumbled away from him and back out the door with the voice of the owner and the bells at the door following her out before slumping into the bench. Groaning, she let her head rest in her hands as her head swam.

She wasn't left for long before the bells at the door rang again. She looked up, getting ready to berate Jeff for following her out, but instead it was Silver.

“Can I, uh, join you?” he asked. She nodded, and he sat down on the bench beside her.

“Did Jeff send you out after me?” Rose asked him. He shook his head.

“No, but I don't doubt he appreciates it,” he replied. “He's keeping a close eye on you.”

She looked over her shoulder and saw Jeff looking at her before he swiftly took an interest in the vitamins in front of him.

“I think he's trying to give you space, but he's not too good at it,” Silver continued.

“A for effort, I guess,” she mumbled.

“To be fair, none of us are very good at it,” he said. “I mean, social stuff. It's hard to be when most of your social interaction comes with the other person being on the sharp end of a knife.”

“You seem to be okay at it,” she told him, and laughed. “Better than me, probably.”

“Yeah, but I suck at being like the rest of them, if you haven't noticed,” he grumbled. “Not necessarily a bad thing, though.”

Rose made a small noise of agreement and they both settled back to watch the sunrise over the ocean through the gaps between the buildings. It was near enough Rose could barely hear the waves and smell the salt and the rot of seaweed.

Around them, the streets were starting to come alive, the swirl of movement chasing away the last vestiges of fog. A few shops were unlocked and opened nearby and people who were obviously tourists wandered by. It seemed SCP hadn't cleared the area after all, perhaps in an effort to be discreet after whatever mess they'd gotten into. The hair on the back of her neck stood up suddenly and her head snapped around.

An odd couple stood at the far end of the street, obviously watching her and Silver before turning away. The young woman was about her age, but much shorter and with straw blonde hair that had been pulled back into a braid like Rose herself had. An older camera hung around her neck and her face was mostly covered by a floppy sun hat she wore. Her companion was wearing a dark, hooded coat with a scarf wrapped around his face and a hat pulled snugly down to his eyebrows.

Very inconspicuous, indeed.

“Silver...”

“I see them,” he replied. “Just look ahead. Don't acknowledge them.”

“But--”

“They're doing the same thing we are,” he told her. “So we're going to give the courtesy of pretending like what they're doing is working. They might not be even looking for us.”

The couple started to walk towards them and Rose felt panic flare up in her chest, but did as Silver said.

As they approached, Rose could now see a distinct mark on the man's forehead sticking out from under the hat. His hands seemed to be covered with some sort of dull, unreflective metal which flexed as he neared her. His eyes, so light blue they were almost white, stared her down as he yanked the hat back down over the mark. Finally, he looked away when his companion yanked on the sleeve and started to speak quietly with him. Rose hurriedly looked back down at the ground as they passed, and only when Silver said, “They're gone” did she look back up.

“What was that about, do you think?” she asked him.

“No idea,” he said, “but they're gone now. We'll tell the others when they get back out here. Speaking of which, I'm gonna go try to hurry them along. BEN's probably taking forever because he noticed the guy had cigarettes behind the counter.”

Without waiting for a reply, Silver shot off back into the store and Rose tried to slump further down into the bench.

This day had been really weird so far.

She'd just barely closed her eyes for a second before someone roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her off the bench. She barely caught herself before nose met the ground (another bruise she did not need, thank you very much) and looked up to see a very tall man with dark skin and kohl around his eyes.

“Hello, poppet,” the man said. “Remember me?”

Dread trickled down her spine and she tried to scramble away, but the man yanked on her wrist again until she dangled with her feet just above the ground. Her shoulder screamed in protest. He leaned towards her until he was nose to nose with her.

“Well, that doesn't matter now, does it?” he continued, despite her lack of answer. “We're going on a little trip.”

Rose felt a familiar pull at her navel as she was once again yanked through space. The man dropped her as soon as they came out to the other side and she hit the ground with a groan and clutched her shoulder.

“There we go, far enough away that your friends can't interfere, but close enough they'll still find your body,” he announced. “Are you still really that clueless about what's going on? What a stupid pet you are.”

His body started to convulse and stretch before her, and black tendrils exploded from his back as his facial features sunk inwards, leaving a face that was smooth and slowly becoming bleached. Rose felt like she couldn't breathe.

“How about now?” Nyarlathotep said. “Ah, there we go, now you're starting to get it. But, I'm not going to be the one killing you today! Surprise!”

He howled with laughter, face splitting open into a sharp maw.

“Unfortunately, I don't get to be apart of the glory that's coming soon,” he said, wiping nonexistent tears from his face. “Of course, I'll get to stride across your pathetic world after, but father's absolutely forbid my direct interference without my brother's command. He's beginning to treat me like a slave, you know. I'm only supposed to deliver you.”

He dramatically sighed and Rose tried to start inching away to bolt, but a tendril wrapped around her foot.

“I had to burn down that mansion and you weren't even it it!” he exclaimed. “Fire's a consequence of my work, of course, but I never really directly use it...What was the poem again? I forget. Oh, look who's here! It's time for me to leave!”

Rose's head snapped around to see a figure in the mouth of the alley where they were.

“Oh I remember it now!” The tendril released her foot and he began to walk away as the figure approached. 'Some say the world shall end in fire, / Some say in ice'...”

Rose scrambled away from the figure, climbing to her feet.

“'From what I've tasted of desire, / I hold with those who favour fire.'...”

The figure drew a switch blade from his pocket and flicked it open. It glinted wickedly in the morning light pouring into the alley.

“'But if I had to perish twice, / I think I know enough of hate'...”

His face was almost a mirror of Jeff's own, if Jeff had lost his pale skin. Even the scars were there. Her back hit the dead end of the alley.

“'To say that for destruction ice / Is also great / And would suffice.'”

The knife was raised.

“Ta for now, you kids have fun!”

The knife plunged into her throat, and she could feel a scream erupt from her throat as it ripped down and into her chest, scratching the bone of her clavicle before halting to a stop in her sternum. Frustrated, the man ripped the knife back out before stabbing again into her stomach, ripping a wide line across her abdomen as she felt the skin separate.

Again, he pulled back to stab, but was interrupted by a man, the odd man from earlier she thought, yanking him back from her. Her assailant swiped at the man with his knife, and she saw the knife cut the man's face. Instead, her assailant's face started to bleed and he stumbled back.

Rose had never really believed in luck, but recently (now) she was starting to believe in the absence of it. Specifically, she thought bitterly as her mouth filled with the taste of liquid pennies, that Lady Luck definitely had it out for her like a high school girl with a grudge. She didn't remember falling to the ground, but it had probably happened after she'd first been stabbed. Her body seized in pain and twisted up from the ground against her will.

She heard someone call her name before her body started to go numb (finally, after all the pain), and she suddenly found it funny she could see a grey-purple tube on the ground next to her that was probably part of her intestines. All she could do was to laugh hoarsely as blackness crept in from the corners of her eyes.

So this was what death felt like.

 


End file.
